Two cattle egrets were seen flying by Lake Erie Bluffs in Lake County about 9:00 this morning. Both were in breeding plumage and were flying west out over the lake. There were quite a few great blue herons (26) and great egrets (9) migrating out over the lake. There were tons of blue jays moving. In 2 1/2 hours I counted 8,770 and I missed a lot while looking at other stuff. I also had around 500 American goldfinches. Typically I get numbers like this the first week of May. I was on the observation tower off Clark Road watching everything flying by. I had 7 species of warblers just from the top of the 50' tower so there were undoubtedly a lot more moving if you spent time searching the woods and fields. Also of note were 17 red-bellied woodpeckers all headed east. They move every other year along the lake. I noticed this back when I was banding.There were also small numbers of titmice, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and cardinals moving the same years as the woodpeckers. Our totals from the Lake Erie Island Christmas Bird Count match this trend also. Lake Erie Bluffs- Clark Road, Lake, Ohio, US Apr 27, 2017 6:15 AM - 9:15 AM Protocol: Stationary Comments: Partly cloudy with strong south winds. I viewed from the 50' observation tower. Blue jays were moving constatly and there really was no time that you didn't see any. 72 species (+2 other taxa) Canada Goose 16 Wood Duck 1 Mallard 4 Hooded Merganser 1 Red-breasted Merganser 439 Common Loon 2 Great Blue Heron 26 Great Egret 9 Cattle Egret 1 two cattle egrets in breeding plumage were observed flying west out over the lake. Turkey Vulture 146 Osprey 2 Sharp-shinned Hawk 8 Bald Eagle 3 Broad-winged Hawk 8 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Bonaparte's Gull 1 Ring-billed Gull 622 Herring Gull 39 Great Black-backed Gull 1 Caspian Tern 21 Forster's Tern 1 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1 Mourning Dove 8 Chimney Swift 6 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 17 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 16 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Least Flycatcher 2 Eastern Phoebe 1 Eastern Kingbird 1 Blue-headed Vireo 1 Blue Jay 8770 Blue jays were constantly migrating along the lake. There was no time that some were not visible. There were a few flocks that totaled 500-800 birds. American Crow 16 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 135 Purple Martin 46 Tree Swallow 79 Bank Swallow 8 Barn Swallow 62 swallow sp. 300 Black-capped Chickadee 1 House Wren 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 Hermit Thrush 6 Wood Thrush 1 American Robin 37 Gray Catbird 12 Brown Thrasher 1 European Starling 122 American Pipit 4 Cedar Waxwing 6 Blue-winged Warbler 1 Black-and-white Warbler 1 Nashville Warbler 2 Yellow Warbler 18 Palm Warbler 11 Pine Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 103 Chipping Sparrow 2 White-crowned Sparrow 2 White-throated Sparrow 34 Song Sparrow 11 Eastern Towhee 1 Northern Cardinal 6 Red-winged Blackbird 244 Common Grackle 112 Brown-headed Cowbird 174 Orchard Oriole 1 Baltimore Oriole 2 American Goldfinch 566 passerine sp. 400 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]