A Sunday trek from Sheffield Lake to Mohican SP with Emil Bacik featured some memorable highlights. We arrived at Evening Grosbeak “ground zero” around 8 AM, and the first unusual finch we saw was a White-winged Crossbill teed-up. Soon, a single grosbeak began calling incessantly, and we observed this lonely female for awhile, when the first small group arrived on the scene. A bit later, a much larger, noisier flock joined the first and at this point there were 32 birds total J They fed briefly, and eight siskins also arrived. We left this area by 9:30 AM, and the homeowner mentioned that grosbeaks are usually gone for the day by 12-1 PM. We also had a high-flying Black Vulture and Winter Wren in the Mohican area.
 
The next stop was Findley SP - and it was painfully slow. Though, we eventually found 11 Yellow-rumped Warblers, but not a single Red-breasted Nuthatch was to be found, and chickadess were exceedingly scarce. 
 
Wellington Reservoir showed a good variety of waterfowl for the date - including a number of shovelers and Ring-necks.
 
Oberlin Reservoir was a wonderful success, this afternoon. This inland gulling spot is extremely hit-or-miss, depending when gull flocks from the nearby landfill descend on the lake to rest. Today was great, as two adult Glaucous Gulls were easily picked out, as well as a first-yr. Nelson’s Gull (Herring X Glaucous hybrid). Also interesting was a intermediate, slender, long-billed gull hanging out near the Nelson’s, which showed some traits of first-cycle California Gull. Unfortunately the bird was too far off to call, and never seen well in flight, but I include some photos of both birds at www.northnw.wordpress.com for you to peruse. The mystery gull is the small, darker bird to the front, right of the big, light-colored “Nelson’s” Gull. Also nice to run into Vic Fazio at Oberlin - and two Tundra Swans descended here as we were all leaving. 
 
For some reason, the photos are quite small on Wordpress...please click on them to get the expanded view.
 
Good birding -
Gabe Leidy
Sheffield Lake

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