Yesterday I birded Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in the late afternoon and
it was loaded with large waterfowl. Easily 7000 Canada Geese at the
minimum, but couldn't manage to pull out any Cackling Geese out of the
mobs. I did have a flyover flock of around 70 Snow Geese (27 blue morphs)
with a single white morph Ross's Goose in the flock, and had three groups
of Greater White-fronted Geese: 11 at Pond 27 and two groups at the upland
reservoir, one containing about 20 birds and the other containing 80(!)
birds. Duck variety was low, with mallards dominating in terms of numbers,
but there were decent numbers of pintail at Pond 27 and some Redheads and
Ring-necked Ducks at the Harold Roe Wetlands. A couple of American Wigeon
were at Pond 27 as well, along with some Black Ducks. Swans were present in
very large numbers, I would guess a couple thousand Tundras and perhaps a
hundred or so Trumpeters.

In contrast to the waterfowl, raptors were relatively scarce, with just a
couple Red-tails, harriers, and kestrels. Four eagles were present as well.
I didn't stay late enough for short-eared owls.

Hunting is still active here, so be respectful of that if you go. The
hunters were pretty much clearing out in late afternoon, though.

I spent the morning at locations along the Erie lakefront and as would be
expected with temperatures in the high 50s, it was pretty unremarkable. Had
the normal gulls with the highlight being a Lesser Black-backed Gull at
Wendy Park. Fair numbers of gulls about at E. 55th, Wendy Park, and
Edgewater Marina but were mainly Ring-billeds with some Herring and Greater
Black-backed gulls as well. Almost no ducks around anywhere, with some
Redheads at Edgewater. Lorain was pretty dull - the only thing of note is
there is a dead swan in the impoundment up against the eastern shore.

Good birding,
Andy Sewell
Columbus

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