Not sure which areas Charlie Bombaci hit, but the north end wasn't
quite that barren of waterfowl. I started up at the Boardwalk near
Galena, and there were lots of Horned Grebes there probably 20+ and
then the young EARED GREBE was still there and this time very close to
the boardwalk near the middle part. It was fun to watch the little bird
(and its orange eyes) as it choked down fish after fish. Some Hooded
Merganser's were visible from there way on out there, and some were
closer in. I saw one of the Horned Grebes do something odd (i thought)
I saw it carrying something in its bill and at first didn't know what
it was, upon scoping out I saw that it was a Maple leaf (or sim. leaf)
and I watched as it carried it for some distance, The Eared Grebe
started following it. This was all rather amusing, and finally the
Horned dropped the leaf and swam around it almost taking it up again,
but must have decided that it was a silly thing to do after all and it
left the leaf there on the water. Another neat thing was getting to see
the Eared Grebe float right by the boardwalk, we could see its feet
that stick way out back, as it swam by.  After this we hit Oxbow (many
of the birds were seen on the other side shoreline and to the north)
and then Mud-hen Marsh. list;

     Boardwalk
Horned Grebe -20
EARED GREBE - 1
Hooded Merganser - 10+
Bonaparte's Gull - 6
Ringbilled - 20+
GBH - 5
Kingfisher, Belted - 2
Red-tailed Hawk
T.V.
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
White-throated Sparrow - 4
Junco - 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Carolina Wren - 3

  Oxbow
Gadwall - 10
N. Shoveler - 30 (far shore, some males lookin' decent)
Mallard - 20+
N. Pintail - 5
Ring-neck Duck - 10
Hooded Merg. - 40+
Horned Grebe - 4
Pied-blled Grebe - 14
Common Loon - 1
D.c. Cormorant - 7
Lots more of the gulls mentioned before

      Mud-hen
N. Mocking bird - 2
N. Cardial - 4
C. Chickadees
Tufted Titmice
White-b. Nuthatch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 3
Golden Crowned Kinglet - 2
Song-sparrows - seen and singing
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Can.Go. - 30 (some flyover)
Mallard - 10
Coot - 15
Am. Crow- 20
Blue Jay - 8
Cooper's hawk - 1 spotted him perched and then later as he was chasing
a cardinal (don't know if he got it)

  It was a pretty good day out there and the views were decent,
especially good views of the grebes off the boardwalk.
      Good Birding,
Ben Warner


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