Thursday January 26th - Gulls in Cleveland


Thursday January 26th – Gulls in Cleveland

          At this point in the month, we had seen 97 species of birds in Ohio.  We only needed three more to get our “January 100” but we were running out of days.  Today was a free day so we decided to head toward Cleveland once again in hopes of seeing several gulls that had been reported.

          First, we stopped at a spot near Ottawa National Wildlife refuge to look for a Northern Shrike.  As we pulled up to the parking area, a Sharp-shinned Hawk was perched right in front of us.  We both got a quick look before it flew away.  We didn't see any sign of the shrike but we had picked up bird #98.

          We continued on to the Ninth Street Pier in downtown Cleveland where a Black-headed Gull had been reported.  This time of year a Black-headed Gull does not have a black head and looks quite similar to a Bonaparte’s Gull.  There were dozens of Bonaparte’s on the water and flying around the pier as well as plenty of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls.  We had to find the one gull with a red bill.  We spend lots of time looking at the flying gulls and the ones floating on the lake and finally I finally found the Black-headed Gull (#99) on the water close to us.  It seemed like a minor miracle.

          Next, we went to the Third St. bridge to search for Glaucous or Iceland Gulls.  A Glaucous Gull is a very large gull with white wings (no black wingtips).  An Iceland Gull is also a white winged gull but is smaller.  There were hundreds of gulls at this location and we had to use the scope to sort through them because they were not that close.  Mike was finally able to locate an Iceland Gull (#100) after I had almost given up.  We made one last stop along the Cuyahoga River and found a Glaucous Gull (#101).

                                       Black-headed Gull

                                       Iceland Gull (on the left)

                                       Lesser Black-backed Gull


 

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