I arrived at Lorain this evening (around 5:15 PM) and was astonished and exhilirated to immediately see a jaeger coursing the far mudflat. It was almost as if the bird were hunting for lemmings on the far north tundra - making passes back & forth. It worked the perimeter before heading amazingly close to me, and circled the impoundment three more times in this manner before heading out to Lorain Harbor, seemingly wanting to land. I called Jen Brumfield, reveling in the past few spectacular minutes when the bird reappeared...I told her that it seemed as though it may land within the impoundment, and within a minute of hanging up with her, that's exactly what it did! It landed on the dike, roughly where hundreds of birders viewed the productive Lorain mudflats from earlier in the fall, and stayed put for the next 20 min or so.
I have posted photos at rarebird.org....and currently, I'm running out the door to watch 'The Big Year,' so the following details will be brief. This imm. jaeger seemed a young Parasitic based on details of shape, bill structure (slender, nail making up ~1/3 of bill legth), white tips on folded primaries, extensive white shafts on upper primaries, & overall coloration. It is, though, an especially pale-headed Parasitic.
http://rarebird.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6078&PID=18261#18261
There was a distant phalarope also present at Lorain Impoundment when I arrived, but I lost track of it when the jaeger appeared in this manner. On the west side of the Lorain River, I flushed a pale Ammodramus sparrow, but it disappeared just as quickly, and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was posted up onshore.
Good birding -
Gabe Leidy
Sheffield Lake
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