ABA Reportable in Ohio! November 2011

With a brief business trip to Cleveland I was able to squeeze in a couple hours of birding time along the Lake Erie waterfront.  Being just 1 short of the ABA reportable threshold for Ohio, I was optimistic I could find at least a couple new birds to put me over that magic number.  With the birdfinding help of my Cleveland birding friends, my first stop was Sims Park on Lake Erie that featured a stakeout flock of all 3 scoters - White-winged and Surf were new for my list.  Reportable in Ohio!  But not one to rest on my laurels, there were other places along the lakefront to check.  My next stop was Headlands Beach State Park which can be an excellent spot, but that day it was pretty slow.  Including no luck with the Eared Grebe that had been reported there earlier in the day.

Next I decided to take a short trek to Ashtabula where a Black-tailed Gull had been seen for the last several days.  It was apparently best seen at dawn or dusk, so my arrival a bit before sunset was theoretically right on time.  There were easily 50 birders in the area looking for the bird, though with no success since the early morning.  A few minutes after I arrived a birder spotted a dark mantled gull sleeping on a very distant warehouse – the gull was identified as the Black-tailed.  Everyone hopped in their cars and got to a much closer viewing spot for a better view.  When I arrived (I was the last one there – my directions weren’t the best), all the birders were claiming victory with such great views of this mega-rarity.  I put my scope on the bird and realized it was “just” an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull – very streaky head, size of a Herring Gull, and pure white tail.  When I broke the news to the birding throng, there were some very unhappy faces.  So everyone piled back in the cars to go to the original viewing location and continued to scan for the bird.  A few minutes later another dark mantled gull was found – but this one had a relatively unmarked neck and head, and was smaller than the Herrings it was with.  Although very distant, this one was indeed the Black-tailed – I’m just glad I didn’t need it as a life bird (it was already on my RI and VT lists).

The next morning I had just a couple free hours at dawn, so I headed back to Headlands Beach State Park.  The first bird I had when getting out of my car was a flyover calling Pipit – my 4^th new one for OH.  After such a great start, I was hoping for a good early morning seabird flight which can be spectacular there.  Unfortunately, it was not to be that day.  Though there was a good flight of Bonaparte’s Gulls, a fair number of Common Loons migrating by, and 4 dark-winged scoters in a flock of Red-breasted Mergs.  It’s always amazing to see thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers passing by in their tight flocks.

My Ohio list is now at 214, ABA reportable but just by 3.  Of course those thresholds keep inching up over the years, so I need to get back to OH to put some more distance between my total and the threshold. 

I’ve inserted below my statebird map for Surf Scoter (shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species).  I’ve seen it along most Atlantic and Pacific coast states, and a couple along the Gulf.  And now Ohio is my 6^th inland state for Surf Scoter.