News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2003

THIS YEAR'S COLD WINTER WEATHER PROVES A BONANZA
FOR LAKE ERIE BIRDWATCHING

COLUMBUS, OH -- January's cold weather has created a bonanza for winter birdwatching along Ohio's Lake Erie shoreline, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

A variety of arctic gulls and wintering ducks, some rarely seen as far south as Ohio, are gathering to feed at warm-water outlets along the frozen lake, including waters surrounding Cleveland-area power plants. Veteran and amateur birdwatchers are flocking to units of nearby Cleveland Lakefront State Park for some of the best viewing opportunities.

With considerable ice cover on much of the central and eastern basins of Lake Erie, the warm waters around the power plants become feeding magnets for many open water bird species, according to Mark Shieldcastle, a biologist with the ODNR Division of Wildlife.

Arctic gulls include several species set apart by their distinctive all-white wings and bodies. Glaucous gulls, Iceland gulls and Thayer's gulls tend to stick close to their nesting grounds in the high Arctic and northeastern Canada. They rarely venture as far south as southern Lake Erie. This year's bitter cold, which began its march south from Hudson Bay in October, has drawn them to the warm-water discharges of the shoreline power plants in search of gizzard shad - a favorite delicacy of the gulls.

Open water around the Cleveland Electric and Illuminating Plant in downtown Cleveland attracts these abundant fish, which are cold sensitive and tend to float to the top and die when temperatures plunge. On a recent Sunday afternoon, birders observed six glaucous gulls, five Iceland gulls and four Thayer's gulls feeding together in open water east of the East 55th Street Marina.

There's even been an unconfirmed sighting of an extremely rare slaty-backed gull. Slaty-backed gulls are native to Asia and Siberia and are almost never seen in the lower 48 states, according to Jim McCormac, a birding enthusiast with ODNR.

An abundant food supply is also attracting high concentrations of wintering ducks to the lake's Ohio shore this winter. White-winged scoters, long-tailed ducks, common goldeneyes and greater scaups have been seen in the warm waters of the central basin - the latter two species in large numbers as is expected when the ice cover is extensive, Sheildcastle noted.

A common eider and a king eider, Arctic ducks that are rarely seen in Ohio waters, were spotted earlier in the season in Fairport Harbor in Lake County. The only other reported sighting of a common eider in Ohio was in 1978, according to McCormac.

He said at least two northern gannets also visited Cleveland's lakefront this winter. The large sea birds are common along the Atlantic shore, but are rarely found inland or around fresh water. Their massive, 6-foot wingspans make them easy to identify, as does their distinctive style of "fishing," which involves streaking dives into the water from great heights. Gannets last appeared in Ohio in 1998.