Arrived this morning @ Conneaut just before sunrise (7:05) 52* stiff wind from W/SW drive from Sandusky St down to Lakeside Dr and find Canada Goose - 30+ Mallard - 15+ Great Blue Heron - 1 at the wood deck (still on Lakeside) Mallard - 4 Horned Grebe - 1 Drive out to the beach near the sandspit 7:30 at start only Ring-billed Gull - 19 Herring Gull - 1 all located on a small exposed sand "island" 25 feet off shore out another 50 feet on a sandbar was Great Black-backed Gull - 1 (munching on a fish) 7:51 Imm Bald Eagle fly-over scatters flock for a few minutes - when dust (birds) settle RBGulls - 31 Herring - 2 and a small group of Red-breasted Mergansers - 12 (off east) NO Bonies!! (yet) 8:09 and we get ouf first Boneparte's Gull - 3 by 8:30 the number has risen to over 100 and i begin the search for the red/orange beak!! i do find Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1 8:38 = Bald Eagle fly-over last scan after birds settle, the Bonie flock is now over 200 and i finally locate Black-headed Gull - 1 8:50 back @ the wooden platform on Lakeside American Coot - 10 Common Goldeneye - 3 Drive toward Ashtabula for another look @ Black-tailed Gull and also to see the Snowy Owl Jen has texted me about - about 1/2 mile east of Ashtabula Power i see a flock of Snow Buntings - 40-ish 9:10 arrive @ Ashtabula and look for the HUGE crowd looking @ the Snowy! i see only 1 car @ bridge reported and so i drive to Museum thinking the crowd is moving - yea right! NO ONE @ Museum! back to bridge and i see the one parked car is running and a scope is sticking out of the window - Jerry T is on the Snowy Owl - 1 great looks! within a few minutes joined by half dozen birders w/nice scopes and we take in the scenery. bird is not moving his/her place but actively looking around. run into WV birders looking for BTG and they gladly take in the Snowy before heading out to see the BHG with hopes that the BTG will follow his usual pattern and fly around 4:00 again. 12:45 = Eastlake Power Plant 4 football field sized raft of RBMergs 100+ RBGulls on the intake/outtake canals a few hundred Bonies scattered with RBMs and Double-crested Cormorants - 20-ish (mostly on cement, a few flying/fishing) Great Black-backed Gull - 1 (also on cement) for the next hour i watch as Bald Eable - 1 (imm) flies around, chases, perches and scares ost of the birds around a quarter mile to the east. a few brave/dumb birds do not spook so easily and i gey quite a show as i get to see the eagle chase and hit a RBGull in flight and crash the bird into the cement intake. in the strong wind he had to work hard to get the bird out of the water onto the cement for his meal - NICE SHOW! lunch for eagle @ 1:17 Great Blue Heron - 1 1:40 @ Sims Park where i run into Nancy and her 23 Scoter pack! nice looks thru her glass and birds seem to be between plummages - interesting! 2:30 = Gordon boat launch beyond launch RGMs - 20+ between launch and Dike 14 Horned Grebe - 14 Bufflehead - 8 Mallard - 6 only a few dozen RBGs in water of flying around (a few on docks) 2:35 CEI water intake Horned Grebe - 40+ RBMs - 200+ raft many more hundreds lining and flying west one correction from last week's post - Jerry T corrected me - i noted seeing a Tundra Swan @ Conneaut last week when it was, in fact a Trumpeter Swan! buster ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]