Mango, mango, mango. That seemed to be the theme for the day as conversations buzzed about the little tropical visitor 500 miles to the south. Five of our regular Avids were away this day, chasing the green-breasted mango near Charlotte, NC. Several more were scheduled to leave after the day’s trip. Unfortunately, much of the mango discussion focused around the predicted snow storm which was scheduled to hit North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia later that day. Some showed hesitation, others showed zeal, and still others said that they were just going to bag it.
Fortunately there was a topic for discussion among the 19 brave souls who ventured north on this cold and windy Saturday. This adventure could be summed up as the almost zilch trip. We should have known that it was going to be bad. Two people were late getting to the parking lot (myself included) and everyone was shivering with cold. Never fear, we thought, the 20 mph northeast winds will bring in some really good birds. Yeah, right.
So, the group, in five cars, headed north to our first destination–Huron via McDonald’s. As we pulled in, numerous Bonaparte’s gulls cycled around in the river and hundreds of other gulls were sitting in the basin. We thought we were going to have good luck as everyone donned their arctic gear and began scanning. Basically, we got a lot more coldness than we got luck. After finding nothing here we went out to the lighthouse. A few mergansers winged their way westward, but other than that it was pretty dull. After leaving, a side group stopped at Oberlin Beach to see if anything was there while the others went on to Sherod Park in Vermilion. We had a grebe at Oberlin that looked remarkably like a first fall eared grebe, but it was a little too far out and it decided to fly away. Now, how many times has anyone seen a grebe just get up and fly away during the middle of the day? Well, that’s birding I guess. Sherod Park was equally dull with the only highlight being three scoter sp. clear out at the limits of conjecture, even with the big scopes. Of course, they were unidentifiable. Well, that’s birding I guess.
Determined to change our luck we decided to go on to Lorain to search for red phalaropes and snowy owls. There we found a few common loons, a few horned grebes, and more dead gulls than live ones. Needless to say, there were no red phalaropes or snowy owls. Well, that’s birding I guess.
After our bone chilling search through the beach-kill, lunch became a priority. Because we were going to go on to Cleveland from here, we decided to eat at the corner of routes 2 & 58 then head on over to the Burke Airport where we would reconvene. We left the choice of eating establishments up to the participants because frankly, I am getting sick of McDonald’s. This did not work. Although we had planned to meet back up at the airport, some folks were a little more ambitious and decided to keep going east before the rest of the group even got to the airport. That’s where we got separated. Two vehicles were in the lead group and three vehicles were in the rear group.
The lead group visited the airport, 55th Street, 72nd Street, and Eastlake Power Plant. The highlight of that excursion was a nice rough-legged hawk at the airport. One of the vehicles in the rear group had to be back to Columbus early and split off, visiting 72nd Street on the way. Apparently, they found the lead group there. The rear group waited at the airport for quite some time thinking that the lead group was just taking a long time eating lunch. Finally, we decided to go on and hope for the best.
The two remaining vehicles in the rear group skipped all of the other Cleveland lakefront sites and went straight on over to Headlands Beach SP. Here’s where things got interesting, finally. The walk out was at first typical of the day with few birds to sort through. Yes, there were a couple of new species to be seen–ruddy ducks, American tree sparrows, and a white-throated sparrow–but it was still a little dismal. Dan and Pete decided to forge out ahead of the group on the breakwall while the rest of us took a more leisurely pace along the windward beach. Finally, Greg picked out something on the rocks next to the lighthouse–a purple sandpiper. We tried and tried to yell at Dan and Pete, but the wind and waves were too loud. Even a one, two, three group yell failed to attract their attention. So, we just watched the bird, which then turned into two birds, from a distance and were almost to the point of taking odds on how close Dan and Pete would be before they finally saw the birds. If we were taking odds, the person with 6 feet would have been the winner. Dan, in the lead, stopped so fast that he almost went into the crashing surf. They backed themselves up and then tried to get our attention. Now, isn’t that a little ironic? Wanting to share the sighting with the rest of the group, Pete decided to run back and tell us about the sandpipers. As he was doing this, he pulled his gloves out of his pocket. As soon as they crested the top of the pockets, his billfold and keys went flying. Although none of us saw this happen, it was apparently like one of those money machines on game shows where the money swirls around in gusts of wind and the contestant tries to grab as much as he/she can. Money was flying around the breakwall, getting into cracks and crevices. When he got to the rest of us to tell us about the sandpipers, he told us about the predicament. It was not very funny at the time because he was still short around $50.00. That’s an expensive purple sandpiper. He then wanted to go to his car to retrieve his camera, but realized he didn’t have his keys. Fortunately, Dan found them on the breakwall and got them down to Pete via Troy. It’s a darn good thing those keys didn’t fall into one of those gaping fissures in the breakwall. We would have been up a creek. Pete went to his car and the rest of us went on up to the breakwall to search for his missing money. We got pretty lucky in that we were able to find $45.00 of the original $50.00, and his Burger King coupon to boot. At least something was finally going our way. We enjoyed the sandpipers for quite a while, Pete was able to shoot two rolls of film, and we came out of there unscathed, but $5.00 short.
As we walked back to the cars, we discussed that it was too bad we got separated from the rest of the group because purple sandpiper would have been a lifer for several of them. It was a lifer for two of the members in our group. Sometimes things go well and sometimes things don’t go so well. That’s birding I guess. We didn’t think the day could get any worse, but backing into a parked car on the way out of Headlands was not the best way to end our already meager day. At least there were no damages and we were able to head home with no trouble. As we worked on the checklist on the ride home, we realized that we would not break 40 species for the day. In fact, we ended up with the following 35 species. Well, that’s birding I guess.
HU = Huron
SP = Sherod Park
LO = Lorain
CL = Cleveland Lakefront
HB = Headlands Beach
| Common Loon (HU,LO) | Ring-billed Gull |
| Horned Grebe (LO,CL,HB) | Herring Gull |
| Double-crested Cormorant (HU,LO,CL) | Great Black-backed Gull |
| Canada Goose (HU,LO,CL) | Rock Dove (HU,LO,CL) |
| American Black Duck (HU,SP,HB) | Mourning Dove (CL,HB) |
| Mallard | Red-bellied Woodpecker (ride home) |
| Lesser Scaup (30 @ HU) | Pileated Woodpecker (ride home) |
| Scoter sp. (3 @ SP) | Blue Jay (HU,CL) |
| Bufflehead (2 @ SP) | American Crow (HU,LO) |
| Common Merganser (HU) | European Starling (HU,LO,CL) |
| Red-breasted Merganser | American Tree Sparrow (HB) |
| Ruddy Duck (4 @ HB) | Song Sparrow (HU) |
| Red-tailed Hawk (ride home) | White-throated Sparrow (HB) |
| Rough-legged Hawk (CL) | Dark-eyed Junco (HU) |
| American Kestrel (CL) | Northern Cardinal (HU) |
| American Coot (SP,CL,HB) | American Goldfinch (HU) |
| Purple Sandpiper (2 @ HB) | House Sparrow (HU,HB) |
| Bonaparte’s Gull |