Nine people enjoyed this brisk November Saturday for a divide and conquer mission. We decided to split into two groups and cover different areas of the state. One group ventured up to the central basin of Lake Erie (group one), while the other group wandered north-northwest for an inland outing (group two). We left Worthington Square Mall at 5:30 AM, after being treated to a flyover American Pipit, and worked until approximately 5:00 PM. Both groups had good varieties of species, but the big target bird of the day (Northern Wheatear) was nowhere to be found. All in all, we tallied 80 species in our combined effort. Group one counted 51 species, while group two counted 64 species (which includes four species not seen by Avids members, but by others in the same area at the same time).
Highlights included Red-throated Loon, Greater White-fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Tundra Swan, White-winged Scoter, Oldsquaw, Franklin’s Gull, Thayer’s Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Snow Bunting, and Lapland Longspur.
Location abbreviations for group one: Worthington Mall (WM), on the road (RD), Lake Medina (LM), Fairport Harbor (FH), Headlands Beach State Park (HB), Eastlake Power Plant (EPP), Sims Park (SP), Rocky River (RR), Avon Lake Power Plant (AL), Wellington Reservoir (WR).
Location abbreviations for group two: on the road (RD), Big Island State Wildlife Area (BI), Killdeer Plains State Wildlife Area (KP), Findlay Reservoir (FR).
