I birded the bluffs this morning and as is so common with birding the Lake Erie shore, today was vastly different from the last two. The last couple days saw several thousand red-breasted mergansers, but today less than 100. Gull numbers were up considerably with over 5,000 birds seen, but not a single Bonaparte's. There was almost one herring to every two ring-billed gulls, the ratio is usually 10:1. There were a lot of herrings, but relatively few great black-backed gulls. The harlequin duck and dickcissel found yesterday were not relocated. The only songbird activity was in the northeast corner. A catbird was seen and 11 common redpolls. Lake Erie Bluffs Metropark--Lane Rd., Lake, Ohio, US Dec 17, 2015 7:10 AM - 9:40 AM Protocol: Traveling 2.0 mile(s) 33 species Mallard 3 Hooded Merganser 4 Red-breasted Merganser 86 Common Loon 2 Horned Grebe 4 Bald Eagle 3 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Ring-billed Gull 3480 Herring Gull 1650 Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 Glaucous Gull 1 Great Black-backed Gull 21 Great Horned Owl 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 4 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 2 Black-capped Chickadee 17 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Eastern Bluebird 7 American Robin 11 Gray Catbird 1 One bird seen along the west end of the trail. 1-2 birds have been present for a couple weeks. European Starling 18 Cedar Waxwing 5 American Tree Sparrow 16 White-crowned Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 2 Song Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 1 House Finch 2 Common Redpoll 11 American Goldfinch 19 John Pogacnik ______________________________________________________________________ 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]