I went to Villa Angela and Wildwood State Parks on the east side of Cleveland Saturday and Sunday.  I have to admit I couldn't relocate the Hermit Thrush and Gray Catbird Saturday but others have been seeing them this past week and there were sightings by two different people for both birds on e-Bird Saturday.  Today I went back from 10am to 1pm.  I ran into Jeanne Hrenko and we birded til around 11:30am and then she left.  We did locate the Hermit Thrush which is exactly where I had seen in 1/1 and 1/2/12 in a tree and some bushes.  It was near the asphalt path leading down to Euclid Creek in the Wildwood side of the park.  
 
When you enter the park from Lakeshore Blvd. everything on the right side of the road is Wildwood and everything on the left side of the road is Villa Angela.  They are two "separate" parks.  There are "hotspot" locations for both parks in eBird listed under Cleveland Lakefront State Parks.  Once you go over the bridge to the marina parking area it is all Wildwood.  The eBird sightings show some are only sighting birds in Villa Angela and don't mention Wildwood.   Not sure how that happens as a good part of the birds seen in winter are in Wildwood (marina, Euclid Creek near the island)  So I wasn't sure where I would find the birds today because of that.  Anyways, the Hermit Thrush was in the trees and bushes south edge of woods area.  After Jeanne left and I finished looking through Villa Angela I returned to the Wildwood side and found it foraging in the leaves and dirt very near a tree trunk close to the grass on the other side of the
 asphalt path in the sun.  It seemed to be in with the Robins who were doing the same thing.  After a few minutes the Catbird popped up in the exact same tree I had seen it on 1/2/12 about 30 feet in, higher in tree with vines and it hangs around the back and sides of the vines, sometimes coming in front.  If you get to close it goes down to the ground in the bushes and is hard to find after that.  There don't seem to be as many ducks in the creek and marina since the partially frozen creek melted from a few days earlier.  Here is some of what was seen today which is not that exciting:
 
American Black Ducks 2
Bufflehead 2
Red-breasted Mergansers - few dozen
Horned Grebe 1
Cooper's Hawk
Ring-billed Gulls - always multiple hundreds in marina
Herring Gulls - few
Bonaparte's Gulls - under 20 seen on lake
Belted Kingfisher 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
American Crows, Robins - more seen lately, White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren 1 usually singing on island - saw it today
Winter Wren 1 heard Wildwood side near creek
Hermit Thrush 1
Northern Mockingbird 1 (very near Hermit Thrush & Catbird) also had another in field in VA 1/7
American Tree Sparrows 2 in VA
Song Sparrow 1 in Wildwood 
Dark-eyed Junco  2
House Finches 13 (many near thrush & catbirds)
American Goldfinch 12 (VA & WW) some near thrush 
 
As for Sims Park I believe the last sighting of Scoters was on 1/6 by Jenn B as seen on eBird.  Saturday 1/7 Inga Schmidt and I could only find approx 130 Common Goldeneye, 2 Bufflehead, Bonaparte's and Red-breasted Mergansers in the afternoon.
 
A few years ago a long time birder in the area gave me a very hard time because I was reporting my sighting all in "Wildwood" when some of the birds were actually in Villa Angela.  Also, it is a Cleveland Lakefront State Park which I leave out as it is too long and confuses people as there are six of them, Edgewater, East 55th St Marina, Gordon Park (E. 72nd) Euclid Beach, Villa Angela and Wildwood.  So that is the story.
 
Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts, OH
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancy_a/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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