A pelagic trip sponsored by Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Great Outdoors Radio, and Discovery Tours of Cleveland was held today out of Cleveland. The weather today was not what you'd expect for a November pelagic trip on Lake Erie. On shore the temperatures were in the upper 60s to about 70 degrees. On the lake it was a little cooler though. Winds were light and out of the east. We saw a lot of gulls during the trip, but only saw the four common species, Bonaparte's, ring-billed, herring, and great black-backed gulls. An extremely cooperative POMARINE JAEGER more than made up for the lack of odd gulls. The bird flew around the boat and sat on the water occasionally offering some great looks. Red-breasted mergansers were the most common waterfowl with several hundred seen. A fly-by black scoter provided some nice looks. We also saw quite a few common loons and horned grebes and had some nice close views of them Also of interest were seven species of raptors. The most interesting was a northern harrier that was seen about 4 miles offshore heading south with a couple gulls in hot pursuit. Other raptors seen were sharp-shinned hawk, bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, rough-legged hawk (at Burke Airport), American kestrel, and peregrine falcon. Considering the beautiful weather it was a great trip. Thanks to the crew of the Holiday and the people who coordinated the trip. There is another trip scheduled for December 11, 7-11am. This should be a good time for jaegers, waterfowl, purple sandpipers and who knows what else. John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 (440) 259-2751 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]