Although Hoover Reservoir is still mostly iced in there are openings
beginning to appear, mostly south of the Smothers Road Bridge. Linda and I  checked
out the reservoir this morning to determine whether anything interesting  was
around.

In the spillway beneath the dam we observed Common Goldeneyes, Buffleheads,
and a lone Redhead. The creek below this was mainly Mallards with a couple of
Great Blue Herons.

Above the dam along with a multitude of Canada Geese we located Hooded
Mergansers, and a Greater Scaup which was surprisingly close to the shore. In  the
sunlight the green head was very easy to distinguish from the purple of the
Lesser Scaup.

At Area C there was a large area of open water and it was here that we hit
pay dirt. The Canada Geese were actually outnumbers by the ducks. Present  were
over 200 Redheads, approximately 100 Hooded Mergansers, 40-50  Red-breasted
Mergansers, 5 Common Mergansers, 15 Bufflehead, 12 Common  Goldeneyes, 2
Northern Pintails, 17 Lesser Scaup, 7 Northern Shovelers, 2  Canvasbacks, 200+
Mallards and 3 Horned Grebes. At the tree line at the  south end of the parking lot
Linda got her Red-winged Blackbird and Common  Grackle for the year. She
plans not to look at anymore of them for the rest of  the year - good luck with
that!

There is open water off the Baldridge Boat Ramp north of the intersection
with Big Walnut Road. Present at this site were 100's of Canada Geese with a
couple of swans sleeping among them. From what I could perceive they are likely
Mute Swans. Ducks were represented by more Hooded Mergansers and a small
group  of Red-breasted Mergansers and 5 or 6 Northern Pintails.

Oxbow Road is still iced in with the only open water viewable being south
from the end parking lot. Here we located mostly Canada Geese with some Mallards
 and a few American Black Ducks. On the way out I spotted an adult Bald Eagle
in  the tree line to the north of the first parking area.

Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve
Delorme 58 C (2) & (3)



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