I went to Wildwood and Villa Angela State Parks today from 10:20 to 12:40pm.  But the only interesting birds that were seen in Villa Angela (where I walked with Jeanne Hrenko ) were approx 11 Common Mergansers flying east and hundreds of Red-breasted Mergansers flying east at Wildwood.  As I was driving out of Wildwood a small raptor flew south along Euclid Creek and landed on a utility pole across the street on Lakeshore as I stopped in the parking lot and viewed a Merlin eating it's catch through my scope.
 
I then went to Sims Park in Euclid from 12:55pm to 2:30pm.  The sun was shining and the lake was more calm (11-9mph SSE) and their were many ducks far out.  It was hard to leave the pier on such a beautiful January day.  Hundreds of Red-breasted Mergansers to the west and northwest with many Common Mergansers in with them all to the west and northwest.  After a long while as I was talking to somebody who lived in the neighborhood who liked birds the Common Mergansers seemed to disappear.  The Goldeneye were scattered all over.  Most of the other ducks were far east of the pier.  Here is what I could find:
 
Canvasback - approx 9 in water, 11 more flew west to east (one male swam right near pier)
Scaup 36
Bufflehead 5 (three were near apts)
Common Goldeneye - at least 200
Red-breasted Mergansers - more than 700-800
Common Mergansers 125 (probably low count as they were so far away from the elevated area near the stone bench just west of pier was easier to pick out the males)
Great-Black-backed Gulls 4
American Robins 9
 
 
Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts, OH
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancy_a/
 
 
 
 
 

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