Hello!

Ben Morrison and I arrived at Conneaut this morning a little past 9 a.m. and Lake Erie was positively howling with wind and waves.  The Sandspit was not really accessible by vehicle (we did see some vehicles drive out there, but there was no way we were chancing it), but we saw one brave person walking out there who turned out to be Guatam Apte.  That was some hardcore birding!  He told Ben that he had seen a Franklin’s Gull on the beach area that is visible from the marina parking lot, so we headed over there and eventually located the bird on the water (Thank you Mr. Apte!).  Our efforts were largely limited to in-car birding with bins trying to locate anything different.  Ben got out and scoped a couple of times, but the conditions were really such that you could not see much with your scope due to the high winds, off and on mixed precipitation (sometimes painful ice pellets), and pretty epic waves.  We moved between the sandspit, Conneaut Township Park, and the marina/harbor areas for almost 5 hours.

Not long after reporting the Franklin’s Gull on Ohio Chase Birds (Facebook), we saw the report that John Pogacnik had an adult Black-headed Gull, but we were unable to relocate that bird.  The amount of Bonaparte’s, Ring-billed, and Herring Gulls (along with a few Great Black-backed, and Lesser Black-backed Gulls) working the harbor area was what I could certainly call a spectacle.  We entered 2000 Bonies into eBird, and that number was very conservative.  They were churning by the hundreds at a time and huge numbers were sitting on the water hanging on the best they could.  Mixed into the harbor area was a pretty steady stream of Red-breasted Mergansers coming from out on the lake and then making their way west against the NW gale.  A few Horned Grebes were seen as well.  It was remarkable to see them navigate what, if put into proper scale for a 6’ human, would have been 50'-60’ waves.

Perhaps as remarkable as the grandeur of the harsh weather and the thousands of birds struggling to feed and get out of the relentless winds, was the lack of other kinds of duck species and loons, other than a few Mallards making the best of it.  We had one Loon Sp. (probably a Common Loon), and 1 Scoter Sp. seen at a great distance from the park overlook.  I am sure some good birds squeaked by us as setting up a scope and continually scanning was just not feasible.  We did not see any Cave Swallows.  There were a few Common Mergansers mixed in and we had a nice little group of Hooded Mergansers in the marsh area driving toward the gate to the sandspit.  

In any event, this is the second experience I have had in 2 years that I would call a birding spectacle in Ohio.  Last year it was a fall evening in Noble County as Ben, Kent Miller, and I saw tens of thousands of European Starlings arrive at Seneca Lake with tremendous “whooshes” of atmosphere being displaced as the flock set down.  


Jon Cefus
Carroll Co. 


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