I went to Sims Park in Euclid today to see the Canvasback that were reported by Columbus Avid Birders.  I was there from 12:20 to 1:10pm when it just started to rain.  It stopped raining for awhile then a very dark ominous sky came in from the west and fogged over everything with rain and I left.  When I arrived the Canvasback/Redheads were straight out from the west end.  Then they all drifted to the far east end of park (east of pier) and got all mixed up with the Scaup.  There were at least 100 Canvasback, 100 Scaup, 60 Redhead, 3 scoters to the far west (of which 2 were White-winged) few Bufflehead and small number of Goldeneye.  But I left and came back at 2:10pm and stayed til 3:25pm.  When I first came back I walked down the driveway and noticed the lake now had white caps and a lot of the above ducks (Scaup/Canvasback/Redhead) were flying west right above the pier area.  After going back up to the bluff at the far east end to retrieve a
 lost item I decided to go to the pier and watched as these ducks kept flying in and then leaving with lots and lots of turnover.  The area to the east that had open water started closing up with ice pushing some of the ducks further west.  I could now count over 47 Common Goldeneye.  White most of the Canvasback/Redhead/Scaup were mostly to the far east of the pier a lot of them had left.  But the weather change brought large numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers (1500 to 2000) and many Common Mergansers (300+) now continually flying west which was the best part for me.  Numerous Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls were seen.  There were now many more Common Mergansers seen in the water now.  I went back to the west end but could no longer find the scoters.  A Peregrine Falcon flew in from the lake and headed west beyond the trees.  I left shortly after that as the activity had slowed down considerably.  What was most interesting is this
 many ducks in January at Sims.  Usually it starts to ice over and viewing is difficult and everything goes to Eastlake.  But the warmer weather brought a reprieve.  Last weekend the ice went much further out and viewing was difficult.

Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts, OH
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancy_a/

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