So persistent and so alluring were the reports of seven unusual species: harlequin and long-tailed ducks, glaucous, Iceland, and Thayer’s gulls, varied thrush, and red crossbill, that the Avid Birders swallowed their pride on 6 January and slavishly followed the advice of others on our monthly outing. Especially encouraging were detailed scouting reports from mid-week birders from our midst like Joe and Dan, who’d seen nearly all these birds only three days before the appointed date. Our final itinerary amounted to a Grand Tour of northern Ohio, which on at least one odometer measured 477 miles. Good thing we carpool.
My computational powers fail me probably, but I think there were 21 of us on this trip, in six vehicles, so we must have prompted a few second glances in a quiet suburb of Findlay when we rolled in and parked en masse next to a certain house with feeders about 7:30 a.m. I had scarcely begun my morning perorations: “Look where the Dawn, in russet mantle clad, strides o’er the crest of yon high eastern hill…,” when my companions shushed me; a robin-like silhouette had appeared in a depression in the six inches of snow beneath a maple tree. Binoculars revealed it as a varied thrush, and we gave our front-row parking spot to others when we’d had a good look, and moved on. Many of the participants, even two long-time Avids, found a life bird in Findlay that morning. Our gang straggled together once again at Grand Rapids, where an immature harlequin duck faithfully continued to feed in the rapids next to the railroad trestle, and a blast down the Turnpike put us off not far from Castalia, where a visit to the frost-free spring-fed pond yielded us many species of ducks, including a young female long-tailed duck—oldsquaw to you unregenerates.
Our next stop was Avon Lake Power Plant, where a couple of plumes of warm water kept the ice at bay, and attracted innumerable gulls. Unfortunately, the southerly winds displaced these plumes enough that most of the gulls were at great distances. Nevertheless, patience rewarded us with good looks at several adult lesser black-backed gulls and a fleeting glimpse of a young glaucous gull, along with some diving ducks new for the day’s list. We met some Cleveland birders at Avon who told us of good finds at E. 72nd Street in town, and since this was out next planned spot we hurried over, where the first bunch to arrive easily found a handsome adult glaucous gull not fifty yards out; a helicopter spooked it before everyone could arrive, but it later appeared for everyone. We stood for more than an hour there, and eventually enjoyed close flights of a first-winter Iceland gull, and four views of a young Thayer’s gull that was hanging out near the CEI plant; one or two of us were lucky enough to see a purple sandpiper zip off into the jumble of rocks opposite the bridge for the hot waters. Now six for six, some of the group opted to continue to Holden Arboretum in the next county to find reported red crossbills, and some of us stayed to scan the gulls a bit longer.
The Holden group ended up missing the crossbills, and we didn’t see anything new in the way of gulls. We stopped at Brecksville Reservation for woodland birds for our still-puny year lists, then at Bath for the fabled wintering merlins (no soap). Still, the decent weather, the concentrations of water birds (eight species of gulls, seventeen of ducks), eight species of raptors, and most of the expected dicky-birds gave us a total for the day of 68, not at all bad for January. The list follows:
