I birded along the Scioto River this morning from O'Shaughnessy dam south through Donegal Cliffs Park and Kiwanis Park to Griggs dam.  The river was open from O'Shaughnessy down to Kiwanis, but frozen the rest of the way south to Griggs, where it opened again below the dam.  Not surprisingly, most of the waterfowl were below each dam, though Kiwanis also had a decent share.  An added bonus was that the river gorge kept me out of the frigid wind most of the time.  Notables included

Canada Geese - most common waterfowl, with flocks of 300+ at O'Shaughnessy & Kiwanis, but these were dwarfed by the 1200 below Griggs dam.  I could not find other geese with them, but there may have been some in the Griggs throng.

Dabblers - nearly all Mallards, topped by 400 below Griggs,  A few Black Ducks at O'Shaughnessy & Griggs

Divers - 3 Redhead and 6 Ring-necked were in the horde below Griggs dam.

ComGoldeneye - 3 were at Kiwanis, and another 9 were below Griggs dam

Hooded Merganser - a few at every stop with open water, topped by 12 below Griggs dam

Gulls - incredibly, I didn't see a single gull the entire stretch of the river

RockDoves - a flock of 200+ birds was sitting on the river ice just upstream from the Fishinger Road bridge

Woodpeckers - nothing unusual, with average #s of Red-bellies and Downies

Brown Creepers - birds at every stop, topped by 3 in the riparian areas below Griggs dam

Golden-cr.Kinglets - the only spot that had them was below griggs dam, where there were 4

E.Bluebirds - 2 were along the river at Donegal Cliffs Park

AmRobins - small flocks were at all the stops, and often along the roadsides, where they were searching out honeysuckle berries

Tree Sparrows - small #s at every stop, topped by 12+ in a small flocks around Griggs Dam

Other Sparrows - small #s of Songs & White-throateds at every stop, an expected pattern here

Finches - nothing but the expected House Finshes & Goldfinches, and not very many of either.

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]