Few healthy birds are headed north in late January here, but some interesting ones are often southbound at that time. Just as we like to head south in April to meet advancing migrants on their way north, in midwinter it often pays to look the other way. Mindful of multiple reports of winter finches, owls, and gulls from the Arctic, eleven of us met at the appointed spot, and were joined by three others along the way, on a trip to Summit, Lake, Cuyahoga, and Lorain counties. The temperature at departure was 17° F, and because we headed north, that was pretty much where it stayed daylong, although 20-knot winds along Erie shore later made it feel a bit colder.
Rare gulls, best seen in January in Ohio, were our primary quarry, with a nice showing of breeding-plumaged waterfowl a side-dish. Secondary were incursive finches like crossbills and siskins, widespread this winter; snowy owls had been seen, but were not reliable. A decision en route to have a look at white-winged crossbills led us to a cemetery in Fairlawn, where we got decent looks at a flighty flock. We visited Seiberling Naturerealm nearby, where we missed more crossbills, but found pine siskins and a mix of northern woodland birds.
Our planned itinerary afterward was a familiar one-Eastlake power plant, E. 72nd St in Cleveland, Burke lakefront airport, Lakeview Cemetery, and Avon Lake powerplant. Our plan was to glean information from local birders along the way, improvising where advisable in this productive situation. Having so many well-known venues along the way inevitably leads to a lamentable amount of unruliness, with carloads of participants arriving early or leaving late at certain stops, even improvising their own mini-itineraries. Fortunately this rebellious tendency is correctable by the wide use of cellular phones, whereby wayward carloads can be at least contacted, if not corralled into compliance with the program. And who knows, perhaps a lost contingent will happen upon something wonderful, and let the rest of us know?
We ran into good numbers of other birders when we arrived at Eastlake, including another Columbus group and veteran Cleveland-area lake-watchers. East 72nd St, we learned, had lost its near-shore gull flock during a warm spell, and was not deemed worthy of a stop: nearly all the gulls had chosen to roost on distant ice floes. This was a major disappointment, as this warm-water outlet had produced many good sightings in the previous weeks, and challenged us to use our precious hours along the shore as profitably as possible. Fortunately, Eastlake was pretty good, with waterfowl and fair numbers of gulls within easy viewing distance.
We headed west (the shore to the east was frozen tight), passing a near-empty outflow at E. 72nd St., and set up a determined but ultimately fruitless search for snowy owls at the Burke airport, then in an increasingly straggling group headed west to another power plant, that at Avon Lake. Some participants remarked that the temperatures were the warmest they remembered for January visits at this spot–perhaps about 0° F with the wind-chill–and we spent an hour-plus with excellent viewing conditions of large numbers of waterbirds, none of them unexpected, and some of the expected ones in low numbers.
Explorations farther along the shore seemed futile, as only the Black River in Lorain seemed likely to remain unfrozen at its outlet, and a lack of reports from there persuaded us to head inland to mop up on possible finds inland on the way home. We sought long-eared owls at Caley Park, then unusual waterfowl at the narrow opening in Wellington Reservoir, on the way back, without remarkable finds, though it was pleasant to bird without all the wind and snow squalls we’d endured farther north. Our total for the day, at least those I heard about, was 51 species, and here is the list:
Pied-billed grebe
Horned grebe
Canada goose
American black duck
Mallard
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked duck
Greater scaup
Lesser scaup
White-winged scoter
Bufflehead
Common goldeneye
Red-breasted merganser
Ruddy duck
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Red-shouldered hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American coot
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Thayer’s gull
Iceland gull
Lesser black-backed gull
Great black-backed gull
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker
Blue jay
American crow
Horned lark
Black-capped chickadee
Tufted titmouse
White-breasted nuthatch
Eastern bluebird
American robin
European starling
American tree sparrow
Lapland longspur
Snow bunting
Northern cardinal
Brown-headed cowbird
House finch
White-winged crossbill
Pine siskin
American goldfinch
House sparrow