Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve

Tips for birding Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve
Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve is a forested area right on the lake shore which can be loaded with migrant songbirds and offers views of the lake that can turn up unusual species year round.
From Birding Lake County’s Often Overlooked Birding Hotspots by Haans Petruschke

Clay-colored, Le Conte’s, and Nelson’s sparrows have turned up in migration. The waters of Lake Erie, offshore from the beach, have produced King Eider and Pomarine Jaeger.

Mentor Lagoons is a stop on the Lake Erie Birding Trail.

About Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve
The 450-acre Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve and Marina were purchased by the city of Mentor in 1997 and 1998 in order to save the property from a proposed private development.

The nature preserve includes one and one-half miles of shoreline with rare dune plants, a riverine marsh, mature oak bluff and crescent-shaped open waterways. Containing the greatest diversity of wetland communities within the marsh basin, it serves as an important breeding and nursery area for fish and waterfowl and provides a resting place for neo-tropical birds and butterflies as they migrate each year.

The Mentor Lagoons wetlands are some of the few riverine marshes still surviving along Lake Erie’s shore; the uplands support the largest unbroken bluff forest in northeast Ohio. Below the forest is a one-half-mile stretch of one of the finest coastal dune communities in Ohio. Together, the dunes and beach support two species of plants listed on Ohio’s threatened list and five potentially threatened species of plants, as well as a highly diverse wildlife community. Over 150 species of birds have been recorded, making this site one of the top birding locations in the region.

Over three miles of hiking and biking trails encircle the Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve providing four distinctly different vistas a view of the marina, Mentor Marsh, upland forest and Lake Erie shoreline. The following nature trails are open to the public from dawn to dusk:
+ Lakefront Trail (1.1 miles)
+ Marina Overlook Trail (.6 mile)
+ Marsh Rim Trail (.6 mile)
+ Woods Trail (.6 mile)
+ Shoreline Loop (.3 mile).
Trails vary in terrain. Signs are posted throughout the nature preserve to direct visitors through the trail system. Trail maps are available at the Marina office, trailhead, or at the Recreation Department located at the Mentor Municipal Center.

Electric carts are available so that physically challenged persons can access the trails. A Courtesy Patrol operates during the summer months to assist and guide visitors.
From Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve (City of Mentor) webpage