My wife Denise and I returned to Ohio from a "Snowbird Winter" in Florida, a week ago. Yesterday afternoon, after seeing the post about the American Avocet at Conneaut, we decided to make the journey up to our old Ashtabula County birding stomping grounds. In the posts about the avocet, there was no mention of other birds seen, so we had to find out for ourselves what was there, and how the brutal winter effected the sandspit; plenty of driftwood. Upon our arrival at about 4PM, there was only one vehicle on the sandspit, we were not surprised to find it was business as usual, the local entertainment, it was a good ole boy in his four wheeler doing donuts in the sand, a confederate flag mounted on a pole in the back of the pickup. Needless to say, the American Avocet was apparently long gone. The pool where the avocet would have been, had two sets of vehicle tracks going thru it. Birding wise, even with this disturbance, plenty of good birds were to be had, with 32 species recorded. Highlights were 9 Bald Eagles on the break-wall, 18 Caspian Terns up close on the sand, numerous Bonaparte's Gulls, a single male Common Merganser, 14 Common Goldeneyes, a single Great Egret, lots of Horned Grebes, and 6 Great Black-backed Gulls up close on the short rock wall on the harbor-side. By the time we were ready to depart for home about 5PM, the local disappointing, disruptive, entertainment continued; two sets of un-leashed big black dogs and their owners. The first two dogs went after the Great-black Backed Gulls flushing them. The second single dog went into the water chasing the gorgeous male Common Merganser, and off he went, all the while, the dog owners encouraging their beloved pets on. "The Conneaut Sandspit", will all be a special place to us. Good birds, and the possibility of finding rare birds, is always the reward of an adventure to the sandspit. We have probably birded this one of kind place as much as anyone in Ohio, and each time we visit, we take home memories, some good and some bad.
 
Bob and Denise Lane / Damascus - Mahoning County 
                                          
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