Lakewatch in Northeast Ohio
- Michelle Wood: SWCD
- November 17, 2011
- 433
With so many eyes scanning the sky and water, there were some interesting birds located throughout the day. Everyone started out at Sunset Park, a small public park located high above the waters of Lake Erie, seven miles west of Conneaut. Early in the morning there was a nice flight of Common Loons, coming off the lake and heading straight south. During the day there were other loons on the water and flying east or west. At one point a Red-throated Loon got our attention when it flew by, giving everyone great looks at this smaller loon.
A nice variety of ducks showed up during the day but all day there were thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers. They would come by in long lines with the sun shining on them making for a beautiful sight. One birder alerted us to a lone Common Merganser flying with a line of Red-breasteds. It was easy to pick out the larger, light-colored bird tagging along with its cousins. At other times, small numbers of Black Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Redhead, Common Goldeneye, and even a few Mallards added to the diversity.
Everyone was hoping to see the three members of the scoter family. We did get nice looks at Black Scoters, then a pair of fly-by White-winged Scoters and later a nice group of Surf Scoters were feeding near the shore at Sim’s Park. One Long-tailed Duck also created some excitement. This was another case where one person found the bird among a flock of mergansers, giving us all time to locate the rarity and watch it until it disappeared in the west.
We split up late in the morning and some of us went over to the Conneaut harbor where we were treated to a show by a Peregrine Falcon that chased gulls in the harbor for several minutes. That alone would have made the day for me, as the Peregrine has always been one of my favorite birds. Also at Conneaut were three fearless Sanderlings and one lone Dunlin.
Heading west the two groups met again at Headlands Beach State Park where the star was a cooperative Eared Grebe. All of us had unhurried views at close range of the rare Eared as it moved around and dived, often side-by-side with the numerous Horned Grebes.
Then it was on to Eastlake where many gulls and Red-breasted Mergansers gave us lots to search through. But it was the call of “jaeger” that got all the scopes trained on a Pomarine Jaeger which gave us quite a show, chasing gulls and in one case forcing the gull to drop its catch, which the Pom neatly caught before it hit the water.
Just before dark a rare Black-legged Kittiwake (gull) flew by, creating an exciting end to a satisfying day of birding.
Good birding!