Spring of 2009 Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Restoration Act.

2. Spring of 2009 Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Restoration Act. • Joint venture between ODNR-DOW and USFWS. • Goal of documenting the temporal and spatial bird use of Ohio’s portion of Lake Erie. • A second year of monitoring was conducted in 2010/2011 funded by ODNR Office of Coastal Management.

4. Flight schedule • 680 miles of transect • Weekly surveys flown over 2 days (split just west of Cleveland). • Fall migration mid-October – mid-December. • Spring migration Mid-March – end of May.

5. Survey protocols • Flight height between 200-250ft • 120 knots (138 mph) • All observations are recorded on a handheld computer synchronized to a GPS system. J. McCormac

6. Results • Surveys: 43 • Observations: 21,769 • Species: 47 • Individuals: 704,358 M. Shieldcastle

7. American black duck American coot American crow American widgeon Bald eagle Black scoter Black-crowned night heron Bonaparte’s gull Brant Bufflehead Canada goose Canvasback Caspian tern Common loon Common merganser Double-crested cormorant Glaucous gull Goldeneye Great black-backed gull Great blue heron Hooded merganser Herring/Ring-billed gull Horned grebe Jaeger sp. Lesser black-backed gull Long-tailed duck Mallard Mute swan Passerine sp. Pigeon Red-breasted merganser Redhead Red-necked grebe Red-throated loon Red-tailed hawk Red-winged blackbird Ring-necked duck Ruddy duck Sandpiper sp. Scaup sp. Snow bunting Snowy egret Tree swallow Trumpeter swan Tundra swan Turkey vulture White-winged scoter

9. Shoreline Rocky river Maumee river Black river Islands Huron river