Birding Port Clinton Beach
Victor Fazio III dromaius at mail.bright.net
Sun Nov 21 13:41:07 EST 2004

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I have received some inequities regarding birding the Port Clinton beach
and thought perhaps a broader audience may appreciate my response.

The Port Clinton beach is simply the frontage to Port Clinton accessible
off Rt. 2 from either Rt. 53 (to the west) or Rt 163  (to the east). I
typically
start behind the Burger King (their parking lot provides ready access to 
the beach) at the east end, head west to the city park about half way along 
the beach (from where you may take the pedestrian crosswalk to the beach),
and then check from the municipal parking lot by the jetty at the west end.
There is in fact more frontage than this, with some beach flats exposed
farther west and east of these points. To view farther west, I walk out on the
jetty (half way is sufficient) while back at the Burger King walk as far as
the
property allows out to the shoreline to where you may scope out the flats to
the east. It is also possible to view the area west of the jetty by
following the 
lakeshore drive (over the downtown bridge) and pulling off just east of the
Elk 
Lodge (I once had 50+ Great Blac-backed Gulls here when virtually none
were to be found elsewhere in the county).

Keep in mind that there is not much here to interest many birders hoping
for great diversity. I generally only see a half dozen reports from here any
given year (which does not help the perception there is not much to see
here). Certainly, water level is everything and when the water is high the
place is practically birdless. However, for nearly 10 years now, at least
during the late fall (mid-Oct. on) there normally may be some sand flats here.
Otherwise, there may only be some flats during very strong seiche events.
The advantages to stopping in to check out the Port Clinton beach is that
it may be done so quickly with a sense of being fairly thorough (i.e.
a very high percentage of the available habitat is viewable). 

Birdwise, the site is largely a resting station for large numbers of
Mallards and 
Canada Geese (no hunting here). Among waterfowl, Lesser Scaup and
Red-breasted Mergansers are regular in late fall, and occasionally may 
appear in sizeable numbers. Scoters are rare but have been reported
several times, as has the occasional Snow Goose amongst the Canadas.
I am unaware of any Greater White-fronted Goose records or Cackling 
Goose, but I believe there has been a Brant or two in the past. There 
can be substantial numbers (in excess of 10,000) of gulls but usually
about a 1000 birds. When the larger gulls predominate (Herring Gulls
and Great Black-backed Gulls) other species may be a reasonable
expectation. The Lesser Black-backed Gull has appeared several times
and may be regular here in early winter. The real Larid attraction are
consistent autumn stagings of Common and Forster's Terns. Both species
routinely linger late into the fall season, and I have recorded multiple
Forster's Terns here into mid-December.

With all that sand and mud (up to 200 m wide and 3 km long) you
may be wondering where are the shorebird reports. To be sure, 
visitation (or the lack thereof) may be an issue here, but frankly
in my few visits each season, typically only an hour in duration,
I have seen exceedingly few birds. Killdeer are regular in small
numbers, but then it gets really thin. Occasional Dunlin, Least
Sandpipers may drop down but even shore species such as
Sanderling and Ruddy Turnstone are rare. Could there simply be
a very quick turnover that requires the type of coverage that
Conneaut Harbor enjoys? The first report which raised an eyebrow
with me (and was the impetus for trying to visit Port Clinton
when I could) was that of a Marbled Godwit in the mid-90's so 
who knows. What I do know is that for all the birding activity
in the area throughout the year, the site could prove more fruitful
should birders choose to take the brief time to possibly enhance
their usual comings and goings along Rt. 2 in Ottawa Co.

cheers

Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts., OH