Without a doubt the highlight of the day, and season, was an ANCIENT
MURRELET. I was scanning the waves with my binoculars and got on it
immediately and recognized it as an alcid. I was able to get the scope on
it and got some great looks at it. The blackish head and chest contrasted
with the dark gray back and wings. There was an extension of white up the
sides of the neck. The belly and underwings were white. It was a chunky
large headed bird with short wings. It had a rapid wingbeat.
Also of note was a pomarine jaeger that passed by heading west. Waterfowl
numbers were great with over 21,000 red-breasted mergansers. There were a
lot of very distant waterfowl on the lake. Of note was the mergansers and
everything close in was heading west. The distant birds were higher in the
sky and were heading east. They may have been scaup, canvasbacks, or
redheads. Mergansers continued to fly the rest of the day and total for the
day easily could have topped 50,000.
Lakeshore Waterbird Survey
Lakeshore Reservation, North Perry, Lake County
November 23, 2013, 0700-1030
Weather- cloudy to partly cloudy, Wind- S 10-15 to 15-25
Temperature 36-37 F, Barometer- 30.26-30.24
Humidity- 76-75, dew point- 29-30
Waves- 4-6 to 5-7, Flight direction- west
American black duck 3
Mallard 18
Canvasback 28
Greater scaup 9
Lesser scaup 84
Scaup spp. 340
SURF SCOTER 1
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER 2
LONG-TAILED DUCK 4
Bufflehead 14
Hooded merganser 2
Red-breasted merganser 21,423
Diving duck spp. 300+
Common loon 12
Double-crested cormorant 2
POMARINE JAEGER 1
Bonaparte's gull 53
Ring-billed gull 860
Herring gull 89
Great black-backed gull 3
ANCIENT MURRELET 1
John Pogacnik
4765 Lockwood Road
Perry, OH 44081
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