Birding is one of the fastest growing outdoor pastimes — fun with friends or on your own.
Birding is a great way to stay connected to our natural world. Lake Metroparks offers some of the best birding locations in the country and encourages the growing pastime through bird walks, classes and day trips.
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Important Bird Areas provide essential habitat for one or more species of birds and include sites that birds use during their nesting season, during the winter and/or while they are migrating. Usually these sites stand out as special from the surrounding landscape. Lake Metroparks has three parks that are of particular interest to birders as they are designated Important Bird Areas by Audubon Ohio for their role as breeding areas and places of rest and feeding during migration: Chagrin River Park, Girdled Road Reservation and Hell Hollow Wilderness Area.
Lake Metroparks is part of the Lake Erie Birding Trail, a series of 84 premier birding locations along Ohio’s north coast coordinated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
A birding trail is a directory of the most productive and accessible birding sites in an area with the goal of bringing people to the birds. The Lake Erie Birding Trail closely follows the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation America’s Byways program, and covers Ohio’s entire 312-mile coastline. The 84 trail sites represent more than 30 federal, state, county and local park districts and management agencies.
The Lake Erie Birding Trail is divided into seven loops. The sites within each loop are similar in habitat type and landscape. Six Lake Metroparks are featured:
Ashtabula loop: Arcola Creek Park (Madison Twp.)
Cleveland loop
Lake Metroparks has a long tradition of guided bird walks. The park district’s variety of habitats offer the chance to see and hear many species of birds. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them. Beginners are always welcome.
Spend time enjoying your backyard birds. Watch your feeders…learn bird postures, silhouettes, habits, songs and calls, where they like to hide and feed. Pretty soon you will know them without having to go through a list of field marks.
In the spring, northeast Ohio is alive with migratory birds and residents. Our lakeshore habitats are known for sheltering colorful warblers and other songbirds that return as daylight increases and the weather warms. Lake Erie Bluffs, Lakeshore Reservation and Chagrin River Park are excellent locations for a bird walk.
Each species returns on its own timetable, so if you want to see a particular bird, a little homework will increase your chances. For example, March is great for watching waterfowl, hawks, first tree swallows and kinglets. April brings us sparrows and first warblers. Then wonderful May, abundant with orioles, tanagers, more warbler diversity, plus vireos and flycatchers. By June, most are quiet, nesting and difficult to find.
Try to set aside plenty of time, know the trail, walk quietly and avoid the urge to chit chat. Covering the same route regularly is a great way to become more observant and better understand how that habitat is being used.
After a few seasons, you’ll have your favorite places, favorite times of year and favorite species well documented for years of enjoyment.
Starting at the eastern end of Lake County and working west along the shore, your Lake Metroparks options are: Arcola Creek (Madison Twp.), Lakeshore Reservation (North Perry Village), Lake Erie Bluffs (Perry Twp.), Painesville Township Park (Painesville), Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park (Fairport Harbor), Veterans Park (Mentor), Chagrin River Park (Willoughby/Eastlake) and Lakefront Lodge (Willowick).
Check out Lake Erie Bluffs. A spring bird walk there often includes a bald eagle or two or the resident red-tailed hawk. Often, loons can be seen diving and fishing along with hundreds of red-breasted mergansers. Checking the grapevines and tree branches in morning sun may reveal catbirds, orioles or a variety of migrating warblers.
Lake Metroparks staff have documented 225 species of birds at Lake Erie Bluffs. We offer bird walks regularly, year round. During the past two years, we have enjoyed a flight of more than 100 turkey vultures, hundreds of gulls, a morning of nearly 100 flickers and mixed blackbird flocks of nearly 1,000 birds. In May, we have watched the arrival of more than 300 blue jays, up to 50 American crows and the return of hundreds of bank swallows to their colony.
At the Bluffs, a significant variety of habitat is protected and this offers many critical options for food and cover. Birds will stopover while on their journey, refueling while preparing to move onward. With nearly two miles of natural and undisturbed beach, Lake Erie Bluffs is unique in Ohio and provides many opportunities to watch birds within this larger landscape.
The flight of birds north to their breeding grounds in spring and south to their wintering grounds in fall is called migration. Some birds fly 60 miles across Lake Erie, while others fly along its shoreline.
During migration, birds need to stop to rest and feed. Our lakeshore habitats are crucial stopover sites. Woodlots, sunny edges, wetlands and sheltered areas can provide protected locations for weary travelers to rest and feed. That’s where to look for your favorite migrants in the spring and fall.
It’s also important to know when to look. Not only time of day (early morning and late evening are best) but time of year. Each species has its own internal clock that triggers its migration schedule. For example, you may have noticed the season’s first hummingbird at your feeder on or around the same date every spring. By keeping track of first arrival dates over the years, ornithologists have worked out migration calendars for different species.
Knowing average arrival dates (mindful that these are weather dependent!) helps us know when we are most likely to find a special bird in our area. Many people keep journals or checklists to help them remember these important dates.
Related links: Blackbrook Audubon Society Burroughs Nature Club Ohio Ornithological Society Lake Erie Birding Trail