Amid all of the holiday gatherings, I was able to squeeze in morning trips to these two reservoirs north of Columbus to look for migrant waterfowl.  Though not quite as big as Hoover, both have a history of snaring unusual waterfowl (just not in the numbers at Hoover).  Neither had much to offer, but there were some interesting finds.

Dabbling Ducks - very few on either lake, mostly small groups of Mallards & Black Ducks
Diving Ducks - a few Hooded Mergansers on O'Shaughnessy, mostly around the inlet to Twin Lakes
Loons - 6 Common Loons at 4 different points along the ALum Lake shore; none on O'Shaughnessy.
Grebes - 10 Horned Grebes along the Alum shore, none at O'Shaughnessy
Cormorants - none at ALum, but 1 was flying south over the dam at O'Shauighnessy
Gulls - sizeable influx, with 600 Ring-bills on the beach at ALum (120+ at O'Shaughnessy) and 150+ Bonaparte's scattered along ALum Reservoir (140 at O'Shaughnessy)
Raptors - no eagles at either, although a photographer mentioned seeing one at O'SHaughenssy on the 23rd
woodpeckers - still good numbers of flickers, with 6 at ALum and 3 at O'Shaughnessy; no sapsuckers or Red-headeds at either.
Bluebirds - 7 at Alum and 6 at O'SHaughenssy, so their movement is slowing down.
Robins, waxwing - many small flocks of Robins all along ALum Creek below the dam, but few above (less honeysuckle).  This morning a similar situation held along the Scioto River, with lots of flocks from Kiwanis park up the the dam and beyond, taking advantage of a big crop of honeysuckle berries.  Waxwings, in contrast, were almost absent; I had to work to find one at O'Shaughnessy and found none at Alum.
Wrens, Kinglets - lots of Carolina Wrens at many stops on both reservoirs; their numbers are near peak after several mild winters.  A lone winter wren was at Kiwanis Park along the Scioto.  Golden-crowned Kinglets were at many stops on both reservoirs.

Rob Thorn
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