Today was another incredible day with lots of great birds.  The sighting of
the day was a merlin.  I saw a small falcon flying out over the lake and it
was joined by a second merlin.  They were chasing a swallow.  I got it in my
scope and it was a single cave swallow.  The swallow was zigzagging in the
wind with both merlins diving at it.  I finally saw the swallow and one
merlin disappear behind a large wave.  The merlin flew up and headed back to
shore.  I did not see the swallow in its talons so I looked back.  The
swallow was again flying with the second merlin chasing it.  They both
disappeared behind trees and I don't know the final outcome.  I am guessing
the merlins were somewhere along the shoreline waiting for small birds to
fly by.  I don't imagine they saw a lot in this wind.  This spring I watched
a merlin along the shoreline head into a swallow flock that was out over the
lake.



Other good birds were 279 brant.  All observed early and all heading west.
Later in the morning when the rain stopped there was a nice flight of common
loons.  I also had a single red-throated low over the lake.  Most of the
commons were high.  For some reason almost every red-throated is low.  I
also counted 3 red-necked grebes.  Also of interest were 4 pomarine jaegers,
all heading west with the Bonaparte's gulls.  They seemed to have no desire
to harass the gulls and the gulls were not paying too much attention to
them.  There were over 2,000 Bonaparte's gulls heading west.  With them I
had a young Sabine's, a young Franklin's, and 2 little gulls.  One of the
little gulls was a 1st cycle, the other an adult.



Every day has been great since Saturday.  It is evident that a lot of these
birds have settled down on Lake Erie for the time being.  It is really worth
trying to make time to get out to the lake in the next few days.



Lakeshore Waterbird Survey

Lakeshore Reservation, North Perry, Lake County

October 30, 2012, 0745-1200

Weather- cloudy with rain, Wind- NW 30-40+

Temperature 46-47 F, Barometer- 29.19-29.20

Humidity-  95-93, dew point- 44-47

Waves- 15-18 feet, Direction- west



BRANT   279

American black duck   3

Mallard  18

Lesser scaup   156

Scaup spp.   340

SURF SCOTER   1

WHITE-WINGED SCOTER  6

BLACK SCOTER   4

Bufflehead   17

Red-breasted merganser   337

RED-THROATED LOON   1

Common loon   377

RED-NECKED GREBE   3

Double-crested cormorant   8

MERLIN   2

POMARINE JAEGER  4

FRANKLIN'S GULL 1 (1st cycle)

LITTLE GULL   2 (1 adult and 1- 1st cycle)

Bonaparte's gull   2,140

Ring-billed gull  287

Herring gull   340

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL  1  (1adult)

Great black-backed gull   3

SABINE'S GULL   1 (1st cycle)

CAVE SWALLOW   1





John Pogacnik

4765 Lockwood Road

Perry, OH 44081




______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]