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Didn't really know where to go today as I found the odd conditions of a SSW wind immediately after a front passing through rare enough that I have no particular expectations as to what may be on the move.
8:00 am to 9:15 ... Sherod Park (Erie Co.)
A modest movement of foraging Red-breasted Mergansers eventually totalled 9000 birds heading east to west. For the first time this season, as much as 10% of the birds were adult males. There were several Mallards, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and even 3 Hooded Mergansers resting offshore. A Belted Kingfisher and adult Lesser Black-backed Gull were the more uncommon flybys. The most interesting thing by far was the movement of loons east to west well offshore. The typical Common Loon migration passage is on a N wind with birds pretty much heading straight inland at some height (~250 ft). Today, birds (up to 18 at a time) were generally a few feet off the water, with the occasional bird up to 70ft off the water. I spent much of the hour or so studying this passage which I have so rarely seen in Ohio, yet is frequently encountered elsewhere. I was especially interested in what this may mean with regard to THE MYSTERY of the Red-throated Loon in Ohio. Namely, how is it that Jerry McWilliams can watch numbers of this species every fall passing by Erie PA yet nothing but the dregs are left for us here in NE Ohio. Today Jeryy had 32 and Monday 43 Red-throateds passing E to W; surely these birds at least went another 20 miles crossing state lines. And so I watched. Enough birds (117 by the time I left) were passing by to gauge appearances of silhouettes at a variety of distances, taking in many aspects of a flying waterbird that make up its gizz. For example, I noticed that these Common Loons just off the water's surface were moving at a speed and slightly faster wingbeat than those I'm used to seeing overhead. Count 1,2,3,4,5 as fast as you can and you have an idea of the wingbeat of these birds. A number of birds were very far out, at the horizon, or about 2 to 2.5 miles away. Honestly, these should go down as loon spp., though almost every bird in close enough to ID by plumage as well as morphology, was a Common Loon. I say almost, as at 8:44 a Red-throated Loon came by. There were 3 other birds at some distance that appeared small with a different gizz, but I have to admit to a lack of experience with small loons in this situation.
Loon total: Red-throated Loon - 1 Small Loon spp. - 3 Loon spp. - 31 Common Loon - 77 On the chance this movement would manifest as a flotilla of resting birds farther west I checked Beulah Beach ... ... goldeneye, Bufflehead, and mergs Oberlin Beach overlook ... ... very little Nickel Plate Park ... ... Common Loon - 1 and very little else with nothing much at all (no exposed flats) along the pier at Huron.
Clearly, they were travelling farther west (Marblehead?, the Lake Erie Isles?).
I headed east then to Lakeview Park in Lorain. There were some 9000 Ring-billed Gulls to be seen from here including a surprising 4100 to 4300 resting on the beach. I was able to walk right up to these birds and take numerous images of the encampment (for later use on a website regarding counting large flocks). As surprising as to their presence here, was the fact that not a single Herring Gull was among them. There were 2 Great Black-backed Gulls. To make the scene even more surreal, 98.5% (yes I counted) were adult birds, one of which was flushed in pink.
At the Lorain Hotwaters, gulls lifting off the outer breakwall in successional waves permitted fairly accurate estimates over a leisurely period of time, allowing for a Lorain Harbor total of at least 24,000 Ring-billed Gulls, 800 Bonaparte's Gulls, and perhaps 700 Herring Gulls. This is among the greatest lopsided ratios of Ring-bill to Herring Gull I have ever recorded during a winter month (and where are the immatures?).
Other than gulls, there was not much else to the harbor.
My first trip to Wellington Reservoir this fall migration was quite productive. The reservoir was smooth as glass at 12:30 and with the ducks scattered across the entire surface rather than bunched up along the NW rip-rap as is often the case, it was a straightforward matter to scope out each bird. The waterfowl totals were ...
Common Loon - 1 (an interesting bird with both eyes fully
enveloped by the white face yet otherwise
a normal adult winter Common Loon)
Pied-billed Grebe - 7
Canada Goose - 780
NO PUDDLE DUCKS!
Redhead - 19
Lesser Scaup - 48
Ring-necked Duck - 640+
Canvasback - 7
Bufflehead - 11
Surf Scoter - 2 (females due N of the parking area, opposite side)
Hooded Merganser - 3
Ruddy Duck - 880 (strung out in lines quite apart from the divers)
American Coot - 460
Ring-billed Gull - 90
and my first of the year, 2 Common Redpolls calling/foraging
at the power line cut below the boat ramp.
Wellington South Reservoir
no waterfowl, but a Snow Bunting overhead.
Oberlin City Reservoir
some 4800 gulls with more birds pouring in from Lake Erie (unusual
for the P.M. when they are typically returning to the lake to
roost). More Herring Gulls were here but at least 4500 were
Ring-billed Gulls. This is by far the greatest number of gulls
I have had at this small city reservoir. At first, I did not think
any waterfowl were present but hugging the rocky edge
along the eastern side were a long string of Ruddy Ducks (270)
and Hooded Mergansers (48). A lone Lesser Scaup milled about
near the stairs.
... on the road nearby American Kestrel and Eastern Bluebird.
Final stop for the day (2:45 - 3:15) was my first visit to Columbia Reservation. All birds ...
Great Blue Heron - 1 Mallard - 51 Pileated Woodpecker - 1 Hairy Woodpecker - 2 Downy Woodpecker - 2 Red-bellied Woopecker - 1 Horned Lark - 7 American Tree Sparrow - 2 American Goldfinch - 2
cheers
Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts, OH