Our adventures on this trip were framed by the sun and a full moon traversing a cloudless sky, and our fourteen hours afield left us plenty of time to admire all the balanced risings and settings and apparent color and size changes of our little haven in the universe. In between, eight of us birded across Lorain, Erie, and Cuyahoga counties in search mostly of the season’s water-loving species, all of whom were responding to the failing light and increasing cold of winter at our latitude.
Sun and moon traded dominion of the sky as we reached Wellington Reservoir, where the distinctive silhouettes of ruddy ducks and grebes gathered sunlight. Ruddies are a firm feature of this location, but migrant waterfowl in general have been scarce thus far this winter, and with them were small numbers of mergansers, loons, coots, scaups, and a single drake canvasback, our only one of the day. Farther up the road we made a quixotic stop at the Caley Reservation, where owls eluded us, but a blue jay amused us by scolding, then imitating a red-tailed hawk, then scolding himself again.
Oberlin Reservoir had its usual flotillas of birds, and along with a selection similar Wellington’s also a big raft of gulls. As always at this time of year, the light was wrong, and we kept inching east on the berm to see the latter, where eventually we discerned a couple of lesser and one great black-backed gull. Not super looks. A stop at the Lorain County airport gave us good views of some habitat but no habitants.
By this time we had received a call about a purple sandpiper at Huron, and decided to include a forty-odd-mile loop to our trip. The harbor there proved to be an unusually pleasant mid-December experience, with little wind and a beneficent sun. There were few birds—as for passerines only a field sparrow or two in the phragmites on the way out the pier—and the waterfowl had been spooked by hunters along the breakwall, but the sandpiper was happily feeding in the wrack inside the lighthouse wall. Purples have been scarce this year, and it was pleasant to find one without the usual distant looks and biting winds.
Our next stop was the Lorain harbor, where we found more hunters, who seemed to be harvesting only a few tasty red-breasted mergansers, dominated the old “hot waters.” The inner harbor was aswarm with gulls floating and flying, where we were able to do little more than admire the different feeding strategies of a couple thousand Bonaparte’s gulls and as many ring-bills. This year very few rarer gulls have accompanied these species here, even though their numbers have been in five figures. As for the usual expected less numerous regulars, we saw one great black-backed, no lesser black-backed, and missed a single glaucous gull.
The marina was, as usual, thronged with gulls—herring gulls but mostly 1500 or so ring-billed gulls—loafing on the docks. The chill, abetted by stronger winds, was nibbling at our avidity. There were no small gulls on the docks, and the next strategy was to scan for different mantle shades. Eventually a darker one was found, not so dark as either of the “black-backed” species, but discernibly darker than neighboring ring-bills and herrings. It was sleeping, but as we couldn’t fnd anything else interesting we kept an eye on it. Eventually we noticed larger size, longer legs, and at length, when it lifted its head to yawn, a black eye with accompanying mascara-like surround, a bill with red and black subterminal marks, and some smudgy streaking on the nape—a California gull. There are only about 40 accepted state records historically of this western species, and we were glad to be able to reach Dan and Doreene, the doughty Ohio year-listers, who were able rush here to reach 310 and 308 species respectively for their 2011 list with this bird.
We had harbored more ambitious plans, but after a fruitless stop at the Avon Lake power plant, enlivened only by the scene of a great black-backed gull devouring another unlucky merganser, we decided to spend some miles heading out to Euclid’s Sims Park before heading home. There we were happy to run into a large group of Amish birders, who quickly left for the west when we told them about the California gull. Here we got good lucks at all three North American scoters, plus thirty drake common mergansers with their harem of two females. Our day was done by then, and after a sharing of the traditional delicious Muffins from Mary we headed home into the setting sun. Our list of 41 is almost completely bereft of woodland birds; comparatively paltry but fun in the acquisition, it follows:
Canada goose
American black duck
Mallard
Canvasback
Lesser scaup
Surf scoter
White-winged scoter
Black scoter
Bufflehead
Common goldeneye
Hooded merganser
Common merganser
Red-breasted merganser
Ruddy duck
Common loon
Pied-billed grebe
Horned grebe
Double-crested cormorant
Bald eagle
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
American coot
Purple sandpiper
Bonaparte’s gull
Ring-billed gull
Lesser black-backed gull
Great black-backed gull
California gull
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Red-bellied woodpecker
Blue jay
American crow
Horned lark
White-breasted nuthatch
American robin
European starling
American tree sparrow
Song sparrow
Northern cradinal
House sparrow