I took a drive into Ashtabula County to check out the different lakefront
sites.  It was a good day with decent numbers of birds at each stop.  There
were not a lot of waterfowl around, but gulls and terns made up for it.

At Geneva State Park there was nothing out of the ordinary.  There were a
lot of Bonaparte's gulls off the mouth of the marina, but nothing rare.

At Ashtabula Harbor, nothing at Walnut Beach of note.  At Lakeshore Park
there was a first year LAUGHING GULL on the beach.  There was also a single
BRANT off the east end of the outer breakwall.  Not a lot of gulls here.

At Conneaut there were a lot of terns flying around the harbor.  They would
occasionally land on the flats until something would scare them off.  At one
time there were at least 300 common terns on the flats.  I also found a
single late BLACK TERN, and at least four Forster's terns.  I also had one
Caspian tern land briefly before heading west.  I also found one
short-billed tern with a rounded head that flew off before I was able to
check it more closely or get photos.  Unfortunately it disappeared in a
cloud of terns.  I was unable to relocate it.  One thing I noted was a lot
of these birds were banded with USFWS metal bands.  We usually do not see a
lot of terns this late in the season at this end of the lake.  I wonder if
they may have been blown in with the "Northeaster" that just hit the East
Coast.

Other birds of note at Conneaut were 1 white-rumped sandpiper, 8 dunlin, 6
sanderlings, 13 tundra swans, and a lesser black-backed gull.

John Pogacnik
4765 Lockwood Road
Perry, OH 44081
(440) 259-2751

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