With light winds and little peeks of sunlight, the bird migration
began heating up this morning.

We heard our first chipping sparrows as we opened the garage door
this morning.
The "vulture tree" visible west of our back yard held 20 TVs who
roosted overnight. Year after year, they all seem to come to the same
tree, spring and fall, ignoring nearby trees that are equal in size.
Our usual cast of characters at the feeders included Cardinals, Red-
& White-breasted Nuthatches, Carolina Wren, B-c Chickadees, Mourning
Doves, Downy & Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, House Finches,
House Sparrows, Blue Jays.
Our first Killdeer showed up in a farm field along Greenville Rd near
Peter Collins Rd, with a few Horned Larks.
 From the parking area at the south end of the new reservoir, the
water was still about 80% iced over, but held 2 Horned Grebes, 2
Great Blue Herons, 5 male Mallards, 1 male Green-winged Teal, 2
Lesser Scaup, 3 Ring-necked Ducks and 20-25 Canada Geese. A couple
Crows flew over.
At Camp Clay west of town on Liberty-Union Rd were 20 more Canada
Geese, a couple Mallards, several Robins, Jays, W-b Nuthatches,
Starlings, Cardinals.
After the skies cleared and the sun was out about 5:30 pm I went back
to the reservoir to find 2 Horned Grebes, 5 R-n ducks (4 males), 6
Herring Gulls and 160+ Ring-billed Gulls. Fishing was obviously good
as the gulls were fighting and picking over many fish carcasses they
had pulled up on the ice in various parts of both reservoirs.

The new reservoir and wetland area should greatly improve our spring
observations, even in this first year when things are still kind of
messy from construction. The boat ramp and fishing pier railings are
in now, but some construction is still going on.

Jean & John Perchalski
Van Wert, OH

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