Lakefront Reservation - Edgewater State Park (Cleveland Loop)
This lakefront park buffers a sheltered recess of Lake Erie's shoreline, and offers great vistas of the lake. Birding is best in fall and early winter, when large numbers of gulls and ducks gather. Edgewater can also be a great place to watch sizeable migrations of Common Loons in November and early December.
Key Species by Season
Spring
- Blue Jay
- Northern Flicker
- Forster's Tern
Summer
- Killdeer
- American Robin
- Ring-Billed Gull
Fall
- Common Loon
- Horned Grebe
- Northern Flicker
Winter
- Great Black-Backed Gull
- Common Goldeneye
- Common Merganser
At-a-Glance
27 - Lakefront Reservation - Edgewater
Lakefront Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks
6100 W. Memorial Shoreway
Cleveland, OH
216.881.8141
Public Access
Open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Amenities
Hiking Trails, Restrooms, Picnic Area, Handicap Accessible Trails
Driving Directions
From U.S. Route 20, exit at Edgewater Park east of Downtown Cleveland.
What to Look For
This lakefront park buffers a sheltered recess of Lake Erie's shoreline, and offers great vistas of the lake. Birding is best in fall and early winter, when large numbers of gulls and ducks gather. Edgewater can also be a great place to watch sizeable migrations of Common Loons in November and early December. A good day might yield several hundred birds, and careful observers always have a chance of finding the much rarer Red-throated Loon.
March and April can also be noteworthy for large flights of migrating raptors if weather conditions are right. Spring migration can also produce large numbers of migrant Northern Flickers and Blue Jays, which tend to move around Lake Erie rather than across the lake. A variety of warblers and other migrant songbirds can be found in the park's trees, especially atop the bluff at the west end of the park.
Noteworthy Rarities
The standout Edgewater rarity to date is Ohio's only record of Rock Wren, present from December 7-14, 1963. The high bluff at the west side of the park is a great place to scan the lake for jaegers in November and December; Pomarine Jaeger is most likely. All three scoters can occur, and local rocky breakwalls sometimes harbor a Purple Sandpiper. The vast expanse of cropped grass that forms the bulk of the park is a great place to find Brant in November and December.
Local Resources
Lakefront Reservation with Cleveland Metroparks
Positively Cleveland
Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society
Nearby Lake Access Sites
Lakewood Park. Located about one mile west of Edgewater Park, on the north side of Lake Avenue. A 40-acre site owned and managed by the city of Lakewood that offers good views of Lake Erie.
Lakewood Scenic Accesses. In the City of Lakewood, there are three publicly accessible spots that provide good views of Lake Erie. One is along Cliff Drive, between Wilbert Road and Nicholson Avenue, about one-third of a mile east of Lakewood Park. The other two lake accesses are to the west of Lakewood Park, and within a mile of the park. One is at the northern terminus of Summit Avenue, and the other is at the north end of Webb Road.
About the Cleveland Loop
The Cleveland region—Cuyahoga and Lake counties—is by far the most populous area along Ohio's Lake Erie shoreline. It also harbors the most birders, and as a consequence the bird life of the Cleveland vicinity is better known than probably anywhere else in Ohio. Birding is good at all seasons, and records of exciting rarities abound.
This loop is the most populous region on the trail, as the city of Cleveland and neighboring areas are the most developed locales on Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline. There are more sites on the Cleveland Area Loop – 28 – than any other loop. Every type of habitat found along the lake occurs on this loop, and some of the sites are among the most famous birding hotspots in the Midwest. The total species list for this loop is 356, and a remarkable 12 of those have only been recorded in this region.
What to Look For
The centerpiece of this loop is the city of Cleveland. The Greater Cleveland area is the largest metropolitan region in Ohio, with a population over two million. There are probably more active birders here than anywhere else in the state and as a consequence this loop's bird list is large and spectacular.
Many of the sites along this loop offer outstanding birding opportunities during spring migration, and a number of these same sites support a great diversity of breeding birds. Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve is a standout among migratory hotspots, and boasts one of the largest bird lists of any single site in Ohio.
The greatest sheer numbers of birds occur in fall migration. Lakeside spots such as Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve draw in scads of songbirds: warblers, thrushes, sparrows, and many others. As fall merges into winter, tremendous numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls and Red-breasted Mergansers build up, especially along the downtown Cleveland lakefront.
Even winter has its charms. Eighteen species of gulls have been found, which puts the Cleveland region near the forefront of North America's best gull-watching locales. Joining the gulls are a wide variety of hardy waterfowl, including scoters, Long-tailed Duck, and the occasional King Eider.
Noteworthy Rarities
At least nine species of birds have been found in the Cleveland region, but nowhere else in Ohio. Some of the mega-rarities include: Common Eider, Ivory Gull, Ross's Gull, Black Guillemot, Common Ground-Dove, Smooth-billed Ani, Boreal Owl, Rock Wren, and Painted Redstart. Some of the sites on this loop are great places to look for rare species such as Purple Sandpiper and Red Phalarope.
Natural Features
Ohio's best remaining natural beach community is found at Headland's Dunes State Nature Preserve. Many rare plants occur there, such as Beach Pea (Lathyrus japonicus), American Beach Grass (Ammophila breviligulata), and Seaside Spurge (Chamaesyce polygonifolia). Fantastic concentrations of Monarch butterflies can gather at lakefront sites in fall migration. Cuyahoga Valley National Park and The Holden Arboretum, in particular, support a staggering array of botanical diversity across a broad range of habitats.
6100 W. Memorial Shoreway, Cleveland, OH
