Weather is always a factor in planning a birding excursion in Ohio; not only must one take into account the weather forecast for the day of your trip, but also what the weather was the week prior to your trip as well. Temperature and precipitation types affect habitat, food sources, and even water. This January produced a challenging set of conditions for the Columbus Avid Birders. Earlier in the week, the country was firmly in the grip of a polar vortex, with temperatures in Ohio plunging well below zero, with wind chills reaching negative 40 below! For the first time in ten years, Lake Erie froze over completely, and many inland reservoirs, lakes, and rivers were capped with ice. However, by Saturday, the weather had changed drastically. Arctic conditions retreated north where they belonged, and a glimpse of Spring was provided with forecasted southerly winds and temperatures in the high 40s on the morning of our trip. While the warmer temperatures were certainly welcome to birders who had been housebound to avoid freezing to death while looking at birds, the rain that was supposed to accompany the southerly winds was not.
As usual, trip leaders take into account the weather forecast as well as scrutinizing bird reports from across the state when planning a trip. Bird reports of unusual and interesting birds, while not confined to the Lake Erie coastal region, were dominated by multiple Snowy Owl sightings, various uncommon and rare gulls, lots of ducks, and intriguing reports of interesting owls and sparrows from the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve. Weighing the odds that enough water had opened back up across the north to bring in more waterfowl versus too much water opening up out on Lake Erie to draw out of range the birds we were seeking, we settled on a visit to the hotspots of Cuyahoga and Lorain counties. Improving rain predictions and the possibility of seeing a Black-legged Kittiwake and a LeConte’s Sparrow on the same day in Ohio were too much to pass up, despite some misgivings about the effect of southerly winds on waterfowl distribution, and also yet again visiting the lake for an Avids trip (our last three excursions all focused on various regions of the Lake Erie basin). Demonstrating a true avid spirit, 15 avid birders met in the pouring rain and headed north to Cleveland.
By the time we had reached our first stop, East Lake Power Plant, the rain had moved off, and our group gingerly made our way across the icy lot to scan over the birds spread across the expanse of open waters between the shore and the ice edge. Possibly a first for the group at this location in January were sightings of folks with open jackets and bare hands! Careful perusal of waterfowl turned up a group of three White-winged Scoters, a solitary Hooded Merganser, a Ruddy Duck, a Ring-necked Duck, and some Common Goldeneye, among the higher numbers of Common and Red-breasted Mergansers. No unusual gulls appeared to be present, however. A pair of Peregrine Falcons perched shoulder-to-shoulder on the breakwater, presaging the breeding season to come, and a Bald Eagle harassed gulls in the distance. Scoters were on the brain, so Sims Park was the next destination. Astoundingly, this usually reliable location for these diving ducks was devoid of any of the three species of scoters, although a single Long-tailed Duck made up for the mysterious absence of scoters. A large mixed flock of waterfowl held our attention, consisting largely of Canvasback, Redhead, and Lesser Scaup, with a couple of Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneye, and Bufflehead thrown in to keep things interesting. Land birds at this park were few, but included a Downy Woodpecker, a large flock of Blue Jays, and a White-breasted Nuthatch. Keeping in mind Columbus lies well below the Black-capped/Carolina chickadee line in Ohio, our group had their dickey-bird appetites whetted for song birds and we headed to Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve (CLNP), formerly known as Dike 14.
The trails within CLNP were alternately soggy and icy, causing our group to keep one eye on the ground and one eye in the trees. The pines along the first part of the trail were carefully scrutinized, as both Long-eared and Northern Saw-whet owls had been seen here recently, but no owls were located – a foreboding of things to come in the owl department. Our main focus at CLNP was a medium-sized weedy field in the western half of the preserve, which tends to hold a good diversity of sparrows. Our target was a lingering LeConte’s Sparrow, reported just the day before. The bird was a no-show for us, perhaps still drying out from the morning deluge and not interested in showing off for a group of birders. Still, we added American Tree Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Field Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and White-throated Sparrow to our trip list, and on the way back out got the coveted Black-capped Chickadee. Our song bird appetite sated, we moved on to the hot water outlet at E. 72nd Street, for the bird of the day.
To the delight of all, the Black-legged Kittiwake was not only present, but was putting on quite the aerial display only a few yards off the edge of the breakwater. Binoculars were unnecessary to view all the splendid field marks of this rare visitor to Ohio waters, as it twisted and dove through the air, pausing to rest on the edge of the ice. Apart from the kittiwake, most of the birds were actually quite far out on the distant edge of the ice pack, and only a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls were briefly discernible before taking their leave. No Snowy Owls could be seen on the breakwaters here, so we moved on to Burke Lakefront Airport, which had in the last couple of weeks been home to a handful of these Arctic visitors. However, the weather began to turn on us, with another front of rain moving across the Cleveland area. We scanned in vain across the airport as the rain began to fall, but no birds were present. “Well,” we said to ourselves, “Wendy Park has had a few owls, we’ll get them there.”
Before heading to Wendy Park, we stopped at Edgewater Park on the advice of Cleveland birder extraordinaire, Jen Brumfield. Masses of gulls and ducks lined the edge of the ice along the shore, with amazing numbers of Common Mergansers, rivaling their Red-breasted cousins for ubiquity. A sudden downpour put a kink in our bird scrutiny, but we managed to pick out first-cycle and adult Glaucous gulls through our raindrop-spotted scopes. After the rain let up a bit, we wound our way to Wendy Park, and picked through the throngs of gulls and ducks. Before the winds started to gust and rain started to fall again, we found a young male White-winged Scoter, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, and a distant immature Iceland Gull, either a first- or second-cycle bird. Again, we were stymied on Snowy Owls, as they had apparently dispersed away from the lakefront.
Moving west, we stopped briefly at Rocky River Park, once known as the “go-to” spot for scoters west of Cleveland. As with Sims Park, the scoters had apparently not gotten the message they were scheduled for an appearance for our group, and were absent, apparently continuing a theme for the day. Lorain Harbor was our final lakefront destination, and our last shot for a reported Snowy Owl. However, the harbor was completely iced over and howling winds made scoping the breakwaters very difficult. Inspection of the impoundment turned up only some Canada Geese, and we turned our vehicles south. Splitting up, part of our group checked out a small nature preserve west of Oberlin for owls (with no luck), while the other part stopped at Oberlin Reservoir, Caley Reservation, and Wellington Reservoir. Both reservoirs were iced over and home to intrepid ice fishermen, and no sign of owls could be found at Caley Reservation. With the light fading at Wellington Reservoir, baked goods and good-byes were exchanged, and the group returned to Columbus, visions of kittiwakes dancing in their heads.
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Trip List: 46 species
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Mallard
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
White-winged Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
American Coot
Bonaparte’s Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Iceland Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Glaucous Gull
Greater Black-backed Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
House Finch