At 1:30 this afternoon, about 45 Tundra Swans were heard and seen coming over Cleveland Heights, heading east. The front that passed last night during the full moon, should provide interesting birding during the holiday period. The lovely warm days recently left the lakefront very quiet, though we did have about 30 Horned Grebes at Perkins (Edgewater) on Nov. 22.

Check below for a photo of a first winter Lesser Black-backed Gull.

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With weather finally typical of November - gray skies and cold northwest winds - we checked along Lake Erie at the power plant in Eastlake, Cleveland spots from Gordon Park to Perkins Beach and at Lorain harbor.

The wind was bringing waves over the piers, and somewhat into the parking lot, so most gulls visible were on the wing at Eastlake. In addition to Ring-billed and Herring Gulls were perhaps 1,000 Bonaparte's Gulls, many of them out a ways. We only saw 3 Great Black-backed Gulls, all different ages, and one adult Lesser Black-backed Gull which had been reported over the weekend. There were easily 1,500 Red-breasted Mergansers in the area as well and 10 dark-winged scoters came in, too far out to completely identify.

In Cleveland we only saw one Bonaparte's Gull and not much of note.

Though not a good photo, this shot still shows most of the pertinent features of a first winter Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Lorain had lots of gulls and mergansers, but we saw no Bonaparte's Gulls. One adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was on the docks at the marina. The former "hot waters" had gulls and duck hunters and between the docks just east of there we were happy to identify a first winter Lesser Black-backed Gull, a plumage we have seldom verified. The bird was with mostly Herring Gulls, some also first winter, flying, fishing and landing both on the water and on the dock. It was slightly smaller than the Herring Gulls, but surprisingly aggressive toward them. Its pale rump with very black tail band and dark primaries were first noted, then the double secondary bar in the upper wing, very contrasting mantle (similar to Great Black-backed Gull, but a little darker) and pale edging on the tail were also seen. The head was small and paler than the mantle as were the underparts and the bill was black and not massive. In all a pleasing sighting in an otherwise mostly bland day's birding.

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We headed to the lakefront this afternoon with hopes of jaegers and saw-whet owls. While we found no sign of either (looking for owls outside the Gordon impoundment only), we did have some very nice hawks. From the Gordon Park boat ramps we saw a bird perched in a tree on the landfill when trying to relocate an American Kestrel, but this was a Merlin. The Merlin took off, coming over the parking lot in pursuit of a pigeon, then landed in a tree by the yacht club building where is sat a few minutes. From this perch it dove on Canada Geese grazing nearby. They only flinched a little. The Merlin went to another perch, but quickly took off over the marina, putting all the gulls to flight. We lost the Merlin after that. It was quite dark-backed and demonstrating all the attitude typical of the species. Shortly after, 3 Red-tailed Hawks came from somewhere to the west and into the impoundment, one chased by the kestrel which was soon displaced from a pole-top perch by one of the red-tails.

At E. 55th a Common Tern was again flying past the parking lot, but this time we saw it land inside the marina and ultimately found 3 Common Terns on the docks. There were 3 Bonaparte's Gulls there too, but off Perkins (Edgewater Park) there were about 100 Bonaparte's in close and a lot more further out.

Lakewood Park Cemetery in Rocky River has a good supply of fruit bearing trees and the birches are thick with catkins. An adult Cooper's Hawk flew in front of us and then perched for great views, but there were still plenty of Cedar Waxwings (50+) and American Robins on the other side of the cemetery. We didn't find any finches though.

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Along with other birders, we searched for the Common Ground-Dove reported from the Jaite area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (CVNRA) on Friday and Saturday (11/5 & 6). There were no doves to be found this morning and it seems yesterday was also unproductive. We did see single Turkey Vulture and Sharp-shinned Hawk and a few Rusty Blackbirds.

Back in Cleveland we stopped at E. 55th and the Gordon Park boat basin. There was very little happening, but we did see one Common Tern fishing across the end of the E. 55th Marina area. It isn't especially late for one, but any in Nov. are good to see. We only found one Bonaparte's Gull of many reported last week.

Check the report of our recent trip to Oklahoma and New Mexico.

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Our tally of about 49 individual passerines at Headlands this afternoon was one less than our estimate of just Ruby-crowned Kinglets on Oct. 11 - and that included only one of them! The only warbler was Yellow-rumped and even sparrows were sparse. We still had most of the usual species and had one Caspian Tern. An adult Red-shouldered Hawk flew across SR 2 at 615, about where we saw one perched on the 11th.

The most unusual find was a woodchuck up in a small tree near the grape vines. It was disturbed by our ogling it and climbed down and away. The only lepidoptera were a few fresh-looking cabbage butterflies and one dragonfly (shadow darner) posed in the beach grasses. Fall foliage continues to look good.

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Ruby-crowned Kinglets have invaded - we even had 3 in our yard. Plus we finally caught up with the many reports of Red-breasted Nuthatches. Also impressive were the numbers of Eastern Phoebes - at least 7 at Headlands, flycatching everywhere. A Blue-headed Vireo was nice and in addition to numerous Yellow-rumped Warblers, we saw single Nashville, Cape May, Palm and Blackpoll Warblers. Bob Finklestein also reported two Orange-crowned Warblers. White-throated Sparrows are abundant and Chipping, Field, Song, Lincoln's, Swamp, White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos were among them. Other typical October birds were Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Swainson's and Hermit Thrush. We were down to only one Gray Catbird heard.

A surprise yesterday was a Northern Mockingbird less than two blocks from our house, our first in Cleveland Heights. It was scolding from a wire among starlings and house sparrows. Carolina Wrens continue around the yard and one day there were two, one with no tail.

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This afternoon we took advantage of the unusually warm day and birded Headlands Beach State Park. High pitched calls of fall migrant Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet and many White-throated Sparrows were heard from the parking lot. The birds were very active and vocal this afternoon, even all along the beach by the wall. In the dunes Magnolia Warblers were common, but along the beach Yellow-rumped Warblers were abundant.

In all we found 10 species of warblers: Orange-crowned, Magnolia, Cape May, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green, Palm, Blackpoll, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat and Wilson's. In addition to the numerous White-throated Sparrows were Song, Lincoln's, Swamp, White-crowned and Dark-eyed Junco. Carolina, House and Winter Wrens were present. The wild grapes attracted Swainson's Thrushes, Gray Catbirds, Northern Cardinals, Brown Thrasher, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireo. There were a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets and one Empidonax flycatcher. A few Chimney Swifts and Northern Flickers may have been moving past as well.

Birds around the boardwalk of the Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center this morning included a Philadelphia Vireo, a few warblers, Carolina and Winter Wrens, Green Heron, Green-winged Teal, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Swainson's Thrush, Cedar Waxwing and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

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At noon today there were pockets of warblers feeding in areas at the east end of Headlands Beach State Park with Blackpoll Warblers more numerous than all the other warblers combined. We saw a total of 10 species; Rob Harlan had 14 between Headlands and Euclid Beach this morning. Our others were Tennessee, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat and Wilson's Warbler. They were feeding on their choice of flying insects, caterpillars and fruit, primarily the plentiful wild grapes. Warbling Vireos were still singing, Gray Catbirds were plentiful and we saw two Swainson's Thrush and one Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. A flock of about 50 Double-crested Cormorants flew past going east.

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We caught up with some of the shorebirds at Conneaut harbor this afternoon. We had 12 species which only included 3-5 Killdeer! The remainder were: Semipalmated Plover (5), Greater Yellowlegs (7), Lesser Yellowlegs (2), Willet (1) which fed briefly then flew off to the west calling a few times, Ruddy Turnstone (1), Semipalmated Sandpiper (~20), Least Sandpiper (4), White-rumped Sandpiper (2 or 3), Pectoral Sandpiper (2), Buff-breasted Sandpiper (1) its white underwings seen when it flew and then it fed among the sparse weeds on the beach among driftwood logs, and Short-billed Dowitcher (11). Among the many gulls were the expected Ring-billed, Herring and Great Black-backed, but no Bonaparte's or unusual species. The only terns were about 9 Caspian Terns.

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This afternoon while watching the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels perform from our backyard, we found a brightly colored, probably first year, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher feeding around the yard. The past week a Carolina Wren has taken up a vocal residence in the neighborhood, the first in several years. The remains of hurricane Dennis may yet bring something interesting to the area, but today's map of the winds make Lake Ontario look more likely a place.

Late in August the trumpet creeper gave up all pretense of blooming and we have seen no hummingbirds since the middle of the month. The plant is heavy with seed pods though, in evidence of their presence during the summer.

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Send mail to: Dick & Jean Hoffman (djhoff@ix.netcom.com)

Archived: Feb 21, 2000