A late March update
- Michelle Wood: SWCD
- March 23, 2018
- 1597
I just listened to the rare bird alerts from the Bobolink area and from Northern Indiana. It’s time for early migrants to show up in our areas, and that has been the case. An early osprey made an appearance already last week, and more are on the way. Migrant turkey vultures and red-shouldered hawks are on the move, although the north winds have not been conducive to raptor migration so far.
Eastern phoebes have been found here in Goshen on the 17th and around the same time in the Bobolink area. At least one purple martin has returned in the Goshen area, about a week after the first Wayne/Holmes report. I’ve only heard of one chipping sparrow so far, but they will soon show up. Early tree swallows also have been seen in several locations.
On the waterfowl scene, good numbers of migrant ducks and geese are still moving through the area. Pleasant Hill Lake has been an excellent location to see common mergansers, and 145 were still there recently.
Here in the Goshen area, numbers of ducks seem to have declined, although recently there were over 300 ducks on one flooded field and pond. The most common ducks in that group were lesser scaup and ring-necked ducks with smaller numbers of redhead and canvasback. Bufflehead and common goldeneye are still being seen.
On March 19 Jen Brumfield found a great cormorant on the Lake Erie lakefront in Cleveland at Wendy Park. This is the third year that a great cormorant has been found in the same location. Evidently this bird likes Cleveland. In the same area there are still many rare gulls being observed every day. Glaucous, Iceland and lesser black-backed gulls can be found. There also were 155 great black-backed gulls along the lakefront on a recent count.
I can’t remember there ever being a winter like this for rare gulls. Away from Lake Erie, birders found three lesser black-backed gulls at Clear Fork Reservoir.
Snowy owls are still around, but that will undoubtedly change in the coming weeks as they head back north. Both long-eared and short-eared owls are still being reported. The most interesting owl story involves a northern saw-whet owl that has been calling every evening east of Lagrange, Indiana in the Pigeon River Fish and Wildlife Area.
It was discovered by two birders who had biked through the area to listen for woodcock. After finding the woodcock, they were biking home when they heard a saw-whet owl calling. After they reported the find on the birding hotline, many birders also have heard the owl, conveniently calling near the D-5 parking lot.
The night that I was there we arrived just before dark and soon heard several woodcock. About five minutes later the saw-whet began calling. It stopped for a few minutes and then continued, on and on. This has been going on for at least several weeks. How long will this bird stay around?
Good birding.
Reach Bruce Glick at birderbruce@yahoo.com or 330-317-7798.