Jill, Jimmy and I decided to dash out this morning to fill in a few gaps in 
our list that seemed to swell this past weekend!!! There is very little 
open water remaining.  At the gravel pits near Spring Valley, no 
White-fronts, but everything else was packed into two very small ice free 
areas, the largest of which was probably only 10 feet by 20 feet.  All the 
geese [nearly 100-could only find one Cackling with its head up--several 
other very small geese sleeping nearby] were on the ice (except 1 bathing 
in the -2 degree temperature, plus wind chill!) . In the smaller pool, all 
the Gadwall, coots, and Scoter were packed into a very small patch that I 
don't know if the coots can get out of-unless they can take off by running 
across the new, very smooth looking ice. The two Mute Swans had their heads 
under their wings on the ice [I thought they were supposed to keep the ice 
broken up--they obviously gave up and went to sleep).  At Spring Valley we 
got the Fox Sparrow at the feeders and Jill and Jimmy added a 
Red-shouldered Hawk..  A stop at the Visitors Center turned up a beautiful 
male Purple Finch, Eastern Towhee, and Hairy Woodpecker--all new for us. At 
the sunflower seed feeder was a N. Flicker, I don't ever remember seeing a 
flicker eating seeds.  Caesars Creek Lake is almost entirely iced in--at 
the beach 6 Mute Swans were sleeping on the ice and a small flock of 
Canvasbacks were sleeping on the ice next to what appeared to be a recently 
frozen patch of water--8 Buffleheads were in a bath tub-sized area of open 
water out in the middle of the lake. Quick dash by the owl can at Lake 
Isabella showed the GH Owl and as a few flakes began to fall we stopped by 
Camp Dennison on the way home.  There is very little open water remaining, 
packing all the coots (and a couple PB Grebes) into a small pool on the 
southwest side and concentrating most of the other ducks in a larger but 
apparently quickly shrinking area also at the south end of the pits. Lots 
of species, Ruddy's were new for us and no sign of the Long-tailed Duck or 
Eurasian Wigeon (actually all the wigeon were gone). In a tiny pool of open 
water below AIM building were a number of Redheads and coots, all the 
shovelers were sleeping on the ice. Only 8 Canada's were present.  Looking 
out the window at all the snow now, I'm glad we got back when we did!!!
Cheers
Dave
PS I quick count of the board shows all the teams combined have recorded 97 
species so far!!!