Avids trips are often planned according to what birds are being seen and where the best or most interesting places to bird are, according to the season. However, this December’s Avids trip was primarily dictated by one factor: weather. Forecasts earlier in the week called for challenging conditions across Ohio: steady rain and a fierce north wind, which can make for truly miserable birding. Fortunately, modern meteorology has advanced to the point where hourly forecasts are increasingly accurate, and so the Avids’ itinerary on this blustery, wet day was scheduled to coincide with when rain was projected to halt; if there were good birds around after the rain passed, that was considered a bonus!
Five intrepid Avids met in a light, chilly rain at Worthington that morning, showing that there are still (fool)hardy members of this group (although other members were certainly proving their mettle on a Lake Erie pelagic trip and an OOS trip in a very windy and rainy Cleveland that same morning). Our first destination was the Findlay Reservoir, arriving as the rain stopped and the light improved sufficiently for scoping the reservoir, which held hordes of distant Ring-billed Gulls but few waterfowl, with a handful of Canada Geese, Ruddy Ducks, a Ring-necked Duck, and a Hooded Merganser. However, the stars of this location flew overhead and eschewed the cold waters of the reservoir for a nearby cornfield, as a flock of 18 Snow Geese entranced the Avids for several minutes. Careful scrutiny of the flock determined a total of seven “blue” Snow Geese were present among their more common white-morph compatriots.
We dallied at a nearby location for a long-standing but hard-to-see rarity (identity obscured to avoid publicizing the bird and location, per landowner wishes, but many of our readers will know what bird we are discussing), with no luck; the winds were keeping dicky-birds low and hard to see – a constant factor for this trip. Still, the hour or so spent looking helped us avoid rain in locations to the northeast later. After judging a sufficient amount of time had passed and that the bird was likely laying low for the day, we took to the road and made our way across agricultural Auglaize County to the Fostoria Reservoirs, tallying at least three Bald Eagles along the way (Bald Eagles would be our most common raptor of the trip). The Fostoria Reservoirs were nearly devoid of life, unfortunately, so we took to the highway and made our way towards Cedar Point.
The Cedar Point Chausee is a famed birding location, although usually impossible to bird until the amusement park is closed, due to traffic and no places to pull over. Fortunately, the best times to bird this location is the off-season, and we had no issues with traffic as we scanned the protected waters of the Chausee. Tundra Swans were here in force, with at least 600 present (your author thinks this estimate is conservative, and double that number could likely have been counted if a suitable location could be found to see all three flocks). Other waterfowl were not as numerous here, with handfuls of Horned Grebes, Mallards, Lesser Scaup, and Ruddy Ducks. Two Great Blue Herons provided our only wading birds for the day. We cruised out to the Cedar Point parking lots, admiring the fierce waves of Lake Erie along the way. Eager to scope waterfowl and gulls in a protected cove, we nearly added a floating car to the trip list of things seen in the water; fortunately, the car was reached in time to place it in gear and halt a slow roll towards the bay. Common and Red-breasted Mergansers were added to the list here, with Double-crested Cormorants, Greater Black-backed Gull, and Herring Gulls as well.
Our next stop was the Huron Pier, with hopes that the strong north winds would have blown rare birds across the lake and kept them close to shore. Here, we found thousands of gulls, but low diversity, as they only included Ring-billed, Herring, and Greater Black-backed varieties. Duck hunters had set up nearby, but it seems that their presence wasn’t completely to blame for a lack of waterfowl here. We looked for the Harris’s Sparrow reported recently in this location, but only managed to turn up White-crowned, Song, and American Tree Sparrows, with a handful of goldfinches for good measure. Perhaps the most notable thing was the recent improvements to the pier, with a new viewing platform and much of the formerly phragmites-filled low area capped off – possibly an improvement?
Aiming east, we headed to Lorain Harbor, home to tens of thousands of gulls. Here we finally added a “winter” gull to the list, with a solitary Glaucous Gull dozing on the outer breakwall with Herring and Greater Black-backed gulls. Few ducks were about in the harbor, and a handful of ducks sought refuge in the impoundment, with a flock of 12 female Buffleheads, a few Redheads, Ring-Necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, and Mallards floating about. Having reached mid-afternoon and already seeing failing light, we cut our time short at Lorain and headed south to hit our traditional final stop on late fall/winter lakefront trips: Wellington Reservoir. Here, the north winds seemed to have picked up, or perhaps it was simply being elevated well above the ground surface that made it seem so. The biting winds made scoping the reservoir nearly tortuous, and with light conditions reducing to levels of near-futility, a quick survey of the reservoir was made, with Pied-billed Grebe the only new addition to our trip list.
Weather is a fickle factor for birding. A change in wind directions in the late fall from south to north can herald the arrival of new migrants; or it may simply push out the birds that were present while those to the north hunker down, waiting for the winds to moderate before taking advantage of tail winds to proceed on their southern journey. The latter certainly seemed the case for this day, but the main goal of the trip was to stay dry, after all, and that was accomplished to the delight and comfort of all participants. Visions of hundreds of swans and beautiful Snow Geese, therefore, were on our minds as we headed home in the dark, unsullied by soaked garments and damp spirits.
Our trip list of 43 species is shown below.
1. Snow Goose
2. Canada Goose
3. Tundra Swan
4. Mallard
5. Redhead
6. Ring-necked Duck
7. Lesser Scaup
8. Bufflehead
9. Hooded Merganser
10. Common Merganser
11. Red-breasted Merganser
12. Ruddy Duck
13. Common Loon
14. Pied-billed Grebe
15. Horned Grebe
16. Double-crested Cormorant
17. Great Blue Heron
18. Northern Harrier
19. Cooper’s Hawk
20. Bald Eagle
21. Red-tailed Hawk
22. American Coot
23. Bonaparte’s Gull
24. Ring-billed Gull
25. Herring Gull
26. Glaucous Gull
27. Greater Black-backed Gull
28. Rock Pigeon
29. Mourning Dove
30. Belted Kingfisher
31. Downy Woodpecker
32. American Kestrel
33. Blue Jay
34. American Crow
35. Horned Lark
36. White-breasted Nuthatch
37. American Robin
38. European Starling
39. American Tree Sparrow
40. Song Sparrow
41. White-crowned Sparrow
42. American Goldfinch
43. House Sparrow