The past week brought joy to many in Northeast Ohio with the first snow of fall and waves of migrating winter birds.

Thousands of backyard bird feeders were inundated with hungry visitors, which brought smiles to the faces of birders, in contrast to the rest of the populace who were grumbling about the frigid weather and hassles of winter driving.

After writing Aerial View nearly every week for the past nine years, I’ve developed a good sense of the makeup of my loyal readers. Most of you aren’t nutty birders like my buddies and me, traveling all over North and South America in pursuit of exotic species, and getting out into the field once or twice every weekend.

Yellow-rumped warblers were the most plentiful fall migrants to be seen over the past week in NE Ohio.

Rather, the majority of you appreciate birds as a vital segment of the natural world. You are smitten by the beauty of the different of varieties of birds that visit your feeders, and you are enriched by your ability to help the birds survive the rough winter months.

I wish all of my readers could have joined my birding buddies and me this past weekend in Lake County at some of the best birding spots in the state. You would have surely been blown away, as I was, by the multitudes of migrants at Headlands Beach State Park.

The trees and bushes there were inundated with yellow-rumped warblers and kinglets, mostly golden-crowned. Hermit thrushes called from the secrecy of the shrubs, while gobbling down wild grapes and berries.

The mixed feeding flocks were joined by warblers: Nashville, Cape May, pine, blackpoll, and Blackburnian, plus winter wrens, brown creepers and Eastern phoebe. Jeff Wert spotted a probable red-throated loon passing overhead.

The tiny, brown mouse-like bird in your backyard is likely a winter wren.

A short distance away, the amazing Wake Robin Trail that penetrates the Mentor Marsh featured lots of sparrows, including such rarities as Le Conte’s and Nelson’s – handsome orange-headed marsh birds that pass through Northeast Ohio in the fall. Other sparrows were Lincoln’s, swamp, song, white-crowned, and white-throated, plus a marsh wren and a calling sora rail.

Few of these birds are likely to show up in your backyards during the fall migration, but plenty of other birds can be expected at your seed and suet feeders.

The more serious backyard bird feeders may be interested to know that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology – probably the leading bird-oriented institution in the country – is offering a program developed especially for you. And at the same time, you can do your part to contribute to the growing data base of ornithological knowledge.

For the 27th consecutive year, Cornell is sponsoring the Project FeederWatch citizen-science project. It kicks off on Saturday Nov. 9.

Anyone with an interest in birds and nature is invited to participate from November through April.

Tens of thousands of participants submit their observations. The data helps to reveal important patterns in bird distribution and populations that appear to be changing over time.

To learn more about Project FeederWatch and sign up, go here

"We have a new interactive tool called 'Common Feeder Birds' that allows people to learn about the food and feeder preferences of nearly 100 species, based on data collected by participants,” said FeederWatch project leader Emma Greig. "The tool can be used to predict what birds can be attracted to an area so you can offer foods strategically to attract desired species."

SIGHTINGS

Later in the week, the Wake Robin Trail hosted up to three Le Conte’s sparrows and an American bittern, Jerry Talkington reported. Other Headlands visitors included American woodcock, blue-headed vireo, Eastern screech owl, and fox sparrow.

At the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, Jen Brumfield witnessed an "absolutely breathtaking" fallout of sparrows and other migrants Friday. It included more than 1,000 dark-eyed juncoes and white-throated sparrows, plus hundreds of white-crowned, song, field, chipping, and swamp sparrows. Also there: merlin, Nelson's and vesper sparrows, marsh and winter wrens, hermit thrush, Eastern phoebe, many kinglets, brown creepers, yellow-rumped and Nashville warblers, Eastern meadowlarks and Northern flickers.

At Edgewater Park in Cleveland, Brumfield spotted a Pacific loon and a group of four surf scoters earlier in the week.

BIRD WALKS

This Saturday, Oct. 26, look for migrating ducks in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Meet at the Ira Trailhead at 8:30 a.m.

Next Saturday, Nov. 2, search for late fall rarities in the CVNP’s Jaite area on a 1.5-mile hike. Meet at the national park headquarters at 9 a.m.