On January 11, six intrepid Avids ventured to Lake Erie for our traditional winter trip. First, we headed to Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve (CLNP), where we tallied an impressive 30 species, including a nice variety of ducks, highlighted by three Long-tailed Ducks. But the clincher came at the very end near the gate, where we located not one, but two, species of owls. First, we searched the conifers for a previously reported Northern Saw-whet Owl, finally spotted by Andy. Then, Susan located in a nearby tree an American Barn Owl reported to us by another group. We were all excited to see a barn owl outside of a barn!
From CLNP we headed to Sims Park, where we dipped on the reported scoters and Harlequin Duck.
We concluded at Jacobs Pavillion, where thanks to Cleveland’s gull experts Todd Eiben, Anthony Rogers and Chuck Slusarczyk, we sorted through thousands of gulls, identifying both the Thayer’s and Kumlien subspecies of Iceland Gull. Unfortunately, we missed a Glaucous Gull by a few minutes.
We ended the day with 42 species, not bad for a January trip!
| Trumpeter Swan Canada Goose Gadwall Mallard American Black Duck Redhead Lesser Scaup Greater Scaup Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck American Coot Ring-billed Gull American Herring Gull Iceland Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Great Black-backed Gull Double-crested Cormorant Horned Grebe Bald Eagle Red-tailed Hawk American Barn Owl Northern Saw-whet Owl Rock Pigeon Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Red-headed Woodpecker Blue Jay Black-capped Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch House Sparrow European Starline Hermit Thrush American Robin Dark-eyed Junco White-Throated Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal |