Today, October 29th, we arrived at The Conneaut Harbor Area about daybreak, at 7:50AM. The access gate to "The Sandspit" was closed, and will probably remained closed, for good reason. The Lake Erie water level was the highest we have ever seen it. The access road to the spit, and most of the spit, were literally under water. The waves crashing over all the break-walls were an unbelievable sight. It was actually sunny, but with the forty degree temperature and the strong winds, it was brutal. There was not an abundance of birdlife, but there were some rewarding finds. Twelve Bald Eagles, kept the gulls active, with Bonaparte's numbering in the hundreds. A total of fifty-six Common Mergansers were found around the harbor. The highlight at "The Sandspit" was two Northern Shrikes in a bare tree directly behind the observation deck. We left for lunch about 11:15AM. On the return after lunch in Ashtabula, we tried some lake watching at several sites, with only a handful of gulls as the result. No waterfowl or loons. We returned to the harbor area about 1:30PM. Super windy conditions still prevailed. At about 2:30PM, Denise found our second highlight of the day, a winter male Lapland Longspur, at the end of the marina road. All in all, another memorable day at Conneaut. We departed for home at 3PM.
 
Bob and Denise Lane / Mahoning County  
                                          
______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


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