The Short-eared Owl photos are up up at http://northnw.wordpress.com/.  Here are the day's highlights, totaling 50 species:
 
Abbe Rd. near Ford plant: Gadwall & black ducks (5)
 
Lorain Co. airport: The first of two stops here today (read on) netted 75 Horned Larks, 5 Lapland Longspurs, and a Rough-legged Hawk…and a lone coyote
 
Oberlin Reservoir: Nice waterfowl variety including 11 Northern Shovelers and a surprise Green-winged Teal, and two Tundra Swans. The good news was that there were ~2000 gulls resting on the water here today and appx. 75% were Herring. While I was unable to detect any white-wingers, three adult Great Black-backeds and a Bonaparte’s stood out from the mix. This body of water can produce FANTASTIC gulling, as some of you may remember from the spring thaw a couple years back (11 each Glaucous & Iceland Gulls on 2/28/09). The gulls here filter back and forth from the nearby landfill and change in composition throughout the day.
 
West Rd. just north of Hughes Rd: Single longspur amidst Horned Larks
 
Wellington Reservoir: Thirty Pied-billeds Grebes were an astonishing January number to me; 11 Tundra Swans and five Common Mergansers added to the mix
 
Findley SP: This is a great wintertime stop for coniferous species and half-hardy Yellow-rumped Warblers. I found six Red-breasted Nuthatches & and ten of the warblers in a short time
 
Lorain Co. airport: Back to the airport for a dusk vigil. Short-eareds were in the air when I arrived at 4:55, and there were at least three owls present. Take the third pulloff (where the fence bends), and this is where the owls will come the closest…as a matter of fact right up to the fence itself.   There were also 30 or more Snow Buntings present at the airport when I returned in the evening.
 
Good birding -
Gabe Leidy
Sheffield Lake

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