The last few weeks of cold, clouds, ice, and snow had been the cause of many cases of cabin fever among central Ohio birders. So it was with considerable relief that we prepared for our February trip while seeing a forecast for fair weather and warming temperatures.
Our traditional destination for winter trips is the Lake Erie shoreline in Northeast Ohio, where we hunt for waterfowl in the early winter and for gulls as the season progresses. The Eastern Basin at this time of year normally yields huge numbers of the more common larids, such as Ring-billed, Herring, and Greater Black-backed Gulls, along with the possibility — frequently realized — of such specialties as Lesser Black-backed, Glaucous, Iceland, and Thayer’s Gulls. But the frozen-in Lake Erie shoreline, the partial shutdown of hot water discharges from several power plants in the area, and continual reports of missing gulls had moved us to find new destinations for our winter trips so far this season. In February, though, recent gull sightings and reluctance to completely abandon our traditions had enticed us. We resolved to try the lakefront on this, our last true winter trip.
Nine of us assembled at the usual rendezvous location and headed north, only to be met with blowing snow. Hey, this wasn’t in the forecast! Granted, the Short-eared Owl that flew over our cars as we exited the interstate near Medina surely was a good omen. Still, the snow was coming down fairly steadily and heavily as we reached our first stop, Seiberling Nature’s Realm Park. The nature center there does not open to accommodate early birders, but we managed to find a few typical winter species as we wandered around, even though we were unable to see the feeders that usually are in evidence. The Black-capped Chickadee that landed on the outstretched finger of one of our members may have been complaining about the lack of feeders as well.
The weather moderated as we approached Eastlake, our first lakeshore stop: although a stiff wind was blowing from the west, the snow had stopped and the sun was peeking out. We sorted through the hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls hoping for some oddballs, but no luck, though we did see a few Greater Black-backed Gulls, which are specialties of this location. Of more interest were good numbers of waterfowl, including Canvasbacks, Redheads, a couple of Hooded Mergansers, a lone Tundra Swan, and even some Coots. A drive along nearby streets looking for feeder birds produced feeders but no birds.
We moved on to the well-known E. 72nd St. location in Cleveland. No more than 50 gulls, all Ring-billed, were hanging around on the edges of the ice, but a nice assortment of waterfowl, particularly both Lesser and Greater Scaup, were at exceedingly close range in the ice-free channel directly in front of us. Scope-filling the views of these avian gems were truly wonderful. A bonus bird was the Peregrine Falcon that stopped by to feed on the carcass of a Canada Goose that had perished on the ice perhaps 100 yards out from us.
Next stop was Avon Lake, where the power plant operating at full blast was still putting out enough hot water to keep a large near shore area free of ice. A few hundred Ring-billed Gulls floated here and there, but waterfowl clearly were the stars of the show again. Perhaps a thousand Canvasbacks bobbed in the light chop, accompanied by hundreds of scaup and Common Goldeneyes, among others.
A final stop at Wellington Reservoir — with little to offer other than Canada Geese — completed the official birding part of our trip.
Despite the lack of gulls, it was a beautiful day (well, except for the wind) and, as they say, a bad day birding beats a good day doing anything else. Our species list, while not spectacular, seems fairly respectable for mid-February:
Mute Swan
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Mallard
Canvasback
Redhead
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Dove
Short-eared Owl
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Common Starling
American Tree Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
House Sparrow