Hi All,

 

I stopped by Hoover Reservoir this afternoon.  I only poked around a couple of locations.

 

At the boardwalk I ran into Cheryl Harner, President of the Greater Mohican Audubon Society, who pointed out a number of great looking Hooded Mergansers tucked up in the nooks & crannies along the shoreline opposite the end of the boardwalk.  There were also about 20 Canada Geese hiding in along the shoreline as well as about 6-8 Pied-billed Grebes (in the vegetation near the Osprey platform), 2-3 Great Blue Herons, a single Horned Grebe, a feral Muscovy Duck, 4 Downy Woodpeckers, 2 Northern Cardinals, 1 White-breasted Nuthatch, 1 Brown Creeper, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet, and several Carolina Chickadees.  Unfortunately no Eared Grebe.  C'est la vie.

 

Cheryl also gave me a good tip about a large raft of ducks off of Oxbow road.

 

I stopped by Oxbow Road around 3:15 p.m. and on the drive back I found about 30-40 Northern Shovelers dabbling along the road.  From the parking lot I was able to scan the lake and found the following species.

 

Common Loon (1)

Loon sp. (1 quick flyby)

Horned Grebe (4)

Tundra Swans (8)

Lesser Scaup (200-300)

Greater Scaup (~25-30)

Ring-necked Ducks (40-50)

Canvasbacks (8-10)

Redheads (20-25)

Buffleheads (50-60)

Ruddy Ducks (12-15)

Red-breasted Merganer (1)

Hooded Mergansers (3)

Bonaparte's Gulls (4-flyby)

Ring-billed gulls (too many and too distant to count)

Belted Kingfisher (1)

 

There may have also been 5 or 6 Black Scoters, but I was having some difficulty getting a good look because of some heat distortion against the opposite shore.

 

The sunlight around 4:00 p.m. was perfect for scoping out many of the ducks from Oxbow, and provided good looks at most.

 

Thanks,

 

Casey

Columbus, OH