January 15th

 

January 15th

          Today was a bodacious potpourri of prized waterfowl!  Once again, we left the house at 6:30am and headed to the Lake Erie shore near Cleveland in search of special waterfowl.  Our first stop was a Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer Outflow which allows stormwater and sewage to be discharged into the Cuyahoga River.  Yuck!  This was rather disgusting and smelled bad, but the unfrozen water attracted many ducks.  We spotted a Wood Duck which normally would have migrated south by now.

          Our next stop was Fairport Harbor where we saw a flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls and a male Long-tailed duck very close to shore.  At Euclid Beach Park we got excellent looks at two female and one male Harlequin Ducks which are rare in our area.  After a quick lunch at Chipotle, we arrived at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve.  We took a 1 ½ mile walk along the lakefront and saw many large flocks of Common and Red-breasted Mergansers flying by.  Toward the end of the walk in a more protected area, we found a Horned Grebe and a Common Loon.  We could not believe our good fortune.

 Onward to Rocky River Park to search for scoters.  The wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping.  When we arrived, there was a crowd of birders with their spotting scopes all pointed in the same direction.  This had to be something special.  It turns out someone had spotted a female King Eider which is VERY rare.  He posted an alert, and the birders came running.  It was just dumb luck that we turned up at the right time.  We got distant looks at this big brown duck which was an Ohio lifer for us.  During the Eider frenzy, Mike spotted a White-winged Scoter which I never saw.  So, for now our bird total is the same.  I would rather have his scoter than my Yellow-rumped Warbler.  Oh well! (7 new species, total 99)

Wood Duck (scarce)                               Horned Grebe

King Eider (very rare)                             Bonaparte’s Gull

Harlequin Duck (rare)                             Common Loon (scarce)

Long-tailed Duck (scarce)   

                                            Hooded Merganser (male)

                                            Long-tailed Duck (male)

                                            Harlequin Duck (male)

 

                                            Bonaparte's Gull



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January Summary

Image
  February 1 st           The first month of our Birding Big Year has drawn to a close.   Mike and I have worked hard to find the important winter target birds as well as some rarities.  We are pleased with our progress.   Here is a list of the winter target birds that we have found:           Snow Goose                                           Snowy Owl           Ross’s Goose                                        Long-eared Owl ...
Read more

Pine Siskin

Image
  February 6 th On the road again Goin’ places that I’ve never been Seein’ things that I may never see again And I can’t wait to get on the road again Willie Nelson After surviving the recent snowstorm and a mild case of cabin fever, I was ready for a road trip.   There have been reports in the past week of a Harris’s Sparrow in Holmes County.   Holmes County is south of Wooster and has a large Amish community.   It is rural, quaint and includes towns like Millersburg, Berlin, Charm and Walnut Creek.   I always love to see the well-kept farms and the residents getting around with their horse and buggy.   It was a 2½ hour trip on lots of country roads and unfortunately we were unsuccessful in locating the sparrow.   As we were leaving the area, a small flock of Eastern Meadowlarks unexpectedly flew right in front of our car.   Normally meadowlarks are not around in the winter, so this was a surprise.   Apparently, meadowlark...
Read more

Florida Specialties

Image
March 8 th           We spent last night in Ocala which is between Gainesville and Orlando.   This morning we drove about 1½ hours to the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area south of Orlando.   The area has both a grassland habitat and several lakes with waterfowl and shorebirds.   We did not see anything unusual, but it was a very rural part of Florida which was new to us.   The area surrounding the wildlife area had lots of horse and cattle ranches.           Two Florida specialties that we saw today were the Mottled Duck and the Limpkin.   The Mottled Duck is closely related to the Mallard and the Black Duck.   Some authorities suggest lumping all three under a single species.   However, the Mottled Duck generally occurs throughout most of Florida and the gulf coast of Texas and Louisiana.   In these areas the Mallard is uncommon.    ...
Read more