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Huron Harbor ...
- virtually no ice and virtually no gulls; the 660 Canada Geese and
180 Mallards was well below the norm of recent years at this time.
Cedar Point Chausee ...
the east Sandusky Bay as viewed from the chausee was home to
some 22-23,000 Ringbilled Gulls and 83 swans. The nearest 11
of which were Mute Swans. Several thousand waterfowl included
1900 Canada Geese. I had hoped to scope the whole from Eagle
Point Preserve but the trail was closed for the Bald Eagle nesting
season.
The Cedar Point Amusement Park parking lot is often home to staging Great Black- backed Gulls when the ice edge has not appreciably extended beyond the bay. Sure enough the only sizeable concentration of the day were the 110 adults here among about 800 Herring Gulls. Another 1500 Herrring Gulls were scattered throughout the east Sandusky Bay area and Sandusky waterfront. However, most of the waterfront was free of ice. Bay duck concentrations often occur under the Cedar Point bridge and today there were 200+ Canvasbacks.
Turning Point I. ...
... Black-crowned Night-Herons numbered 34 although more
may be present at the coal docks nearby. Also visible on the spoil
island (as seen from Shelby Boat access) were 68 Double-crested
Cormorant. This portion of the waterfront hosted 6000 Ring-billed
Gulls and another 1100+ Herring Gulls.
A bit unexpected were 6 Bald Eagles in the distance sitting off the sand spit at Bay Point (off Marblehead Peninsula).
Medusa Marsh (after an overnight low of 50 deg.) was 50% free of ice; almost unheard of in mid-January. The iced covered portion of the main pond along Barrett Rd. hosted 9 Bald Eagles. Only 8 Great Blue Herons and 8 Mute Swans were present.
Continuuing in my quest for ice (and its attendant gull concentrations) I cruised Bay View and the Sandusky Bay bridge area. Not only is the outer Bay but also 95% of the inner bay was ice free. Where some had bunched up against a shoreline roughly 3000 Ring-billed Gulls rested but little else.
East Harbor State Park...
... the shallow waters here were mostly ice covered and home to 9000
Ring-billed Gulls, 600 Herring, and 68 Great Black-backed Gulls. The
only waterfowl were another 6 Mute Swans and 22 Common Mergansers.
The wintering Great Blue Heron flock was down to 20 birds but I failed
to locate any of the 6 Great Egrets that Isaac Kern had located here a
couple of weeks ago on the Gypsum CBC.
Port Clinton ...
... again no ice and gull numbers were down to 6-7000 Ring-billed Gulls
strewn along the waterfront with another 29 Great Black-backed Gulls.
A pleasant surprise was immaculate raft of male Canvasbacks just
offshore from the Burger King. At least 2900 birds with 400 Redhead
bunched at one end of the raft.
Catawba I. ...
... buoyed by the waterfowl at Port Clinton I investigated the tip of
Catawba I. Here there was ice ... well-offshore but close enough to
make out 19,000+ Ring-billed Gulls and 1100+ Herring Gulls. Few
dark-backed gulls however, and no more waterfowl.
Marblehead (Lake Point Park) ...
... stopped to count 110 American Robins for the winter atlas, then
looked off again to the tip of Bay Point (only from the opposite side).
Some gray lumps resolved into 24 Great Blue Herons in the scope;
i have never before sighted herons wintering at Bay Point.
The mudflat at Meadowbrook Lake looked promising but no Killdeer this year. Some flailing wings a 100 yards out in the mowed field gave away the position of a harrier wrestling with something on the ground. I turned the car around and less than 30 secs later was looking back at the spot only see an immense dark raptor. Just as I was imagining how this transmogrification into an adult Bald Eagle took place, an adult male harrier with talons outstretched raked the air above the Bald Eagle which apparently had driven the harrier off its prey. The eagle shrugged it off, lost interest in the prey, and left.
...
a ho-hum sort of outing with the intent of determining where some
of the gulls may be at the moment. I located roughly 65000 ring-billed
gulls and 5000 or so Herring Gulls in the Sandusky Basin ... a pattern
of distribution typical of early December.
Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts., OH
cheers
Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts, OH