The Columbus Audubon trip today to Hoover Reservoir was greeted by a totally frozen reservoir, so we hit the few places where we knew there would be open water and feeders:  the Hoover dam area and nearby Blendon Woods.  Waterfowl numbers and diversity was about the same as last week, but a slightly different set of land birds put in an appearance.  Highlights included:

Geese - about 400 at the dam spillway and another 500 at Thoreau lake in Blendon

Dabbling Ducks - the dam now has 6 Gadwall and 3 shovelers, but the Blendon wigeon was a no-show

Diving Ducks - the dam spillway now has a female Common Goldeneye, in addition to the female Bufflehead and Ruddy Duck that are presumably holdovers from last week.

Raptors - no eagles at the dam, but a Cooper's cruised the woodlands just below the dam, and anotherone terrorized the feeder birds at the Blendon nature center.

Woodpeckers - a Pileated was in the woods below the dam, and lots of Red-bellieds & Downies were along the trails at Blendon.

Brown Creepers - 1 was at Walnut ravine (Area S) east of the dam, while another was along the trail to Thoreau lake at Blendon

Robins - small numbers were at both sites, mostly hanging around fruit trees that had some dried fruits.

Sparrows - only 1 White-throated at the dam, but the feeders (both Nature Center and Lake) at Blendon had 12+ Tree Sparrows, 4 Songs, and 4-6 White-throats, along with a few Juncos.

Blackbirds - Redwings had been reported from several area feeders, but we didn't see any at either site.

Finches - still nothing remarkable, with a few House Finches and Goldfinches at both spots.

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