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Publication TYPE: Ohio-birds listserv posting
Date: 9 Nov 2004
Subject: Sherod Park to Huron - Erie County lakeshore 9 Nov

Sherod Park to Huron - Erie County lakeshore

A brief outing this morning just to check on the loon flight that typically takes place on a N wind coincident with a sharp cool down in early November.

9 Nov., NW wind at 9 mph, 35 deg. wind chill 28. 3/10 cloud and clearing.

Sherod Park - 7:15 to 8:15 (located on the Lake Erie shoreline off Rt. 6 a mile or so west of Vermilion ... the park does not open until 8:00 am so I parked outside the gate at 7:15; if you prefer, a better alternative for a loon watch is the overlook at Oberlin Beach).

  
Common Loon - 81 (all from 7:20 to 7:50 .... normally peak is 8-8:30)
.... yesterday may have been better conditions ... these flights often
number in the hundreds and may have once - in the 70's - reached a 
thousand or more. Just remember these birds are typically 100 to 400 ft
overhead generally heading in a SSW direction ... the same skills
used detecting raptors at a hawk watch come in handy for spotting these
birds.

Double-crested Cormorant - 128 (all heading east 100 to 200 ft overhead)

small skeins (up to 30 birds) of Mallards and American Black Ducks were
moving east at 150ft or more off the water.

Bufflehead - a raft of 35 just offshore grew to 60+ by the time I left.

Red-breasted Merganser - many groups of 30-50 birds heading east all
morning. A conscious choice must be made between scanning overhead
for loons or counting mergs cruising a few feet above the waves
of Lake Erie if one is to census one or the other (I have never been able
to do both).

Black Scoter - for all the scoters detected to the east and west of this
location, I rarely find one here. Just as I was readying to leave, a female
passed by close to shore rapidly heading west.

Killdeer - 3 were on the beach

Huron River mouth/pier - 8:30 - 9:30

the walk out to the end of the pier - virtually birdless -
coming back, a cabin cruiser heading out to the lake 
left a hundred Bonaparte's Gulls and 2 Common Loons in it's wake.

from the shoreline park looking over the mudflats
... a 1st yr. Bald Eagle overhead
... a single Snow Bunting overhead

and very few gulls with nothing of note.

another 47 cormorants lifted off from the river heading out to the lake.

cheers

Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts, OH