What I call the Watermark Quarry (a name first used by Rob Thorn I think) is the large quarry along Rt. 33 near Grandview Avenue.  The best viewing there is on the penisula in the middle of it which can be reach from Watermark Road. There are some mostly vacant parking lots on it where you can scan the back end where the duck usually concentrate. The gate to the peninsula is locked on evening and weekends, but you can park by an office building on Watermark and just walk out there then. 

YES, the 2 White-winged Scoters were still there today. Hopefully they will stay at least one more day for Nathaniel. Thanks to him for checking out the McKinley quarry. The Surf Scoter was still there 5 minutes ago.

I headed over to Deer Creek this afternoon for a look around. The area above the dam is heavily flooded. A good chunk of the wildlife area is under water. There are thousands of ducks throughout the Deer Creek area now. Too many to even estimate. Ring-necked, Lesser Scaup, and Buffleheads seem the most numerous, but many other species are also abundant. While not exactly abundant yet, there was a good number of Blue-winged Teal there today. Bonaparte's Gulls in all pumages are also numerous there. When water levels go down, it should offer some good shorebird habitat, but the only shorebirds (besides Killdeer) I saw today were in a flooded farm field south of the reservoir near the intersection of Mouser and Dick Roads. Birds there included :

10 American Golden Plovers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
5 Wilson's Snipes

A singing Field Sparrow was a nice sign of spring although American Tree Sparrows are still the predominant Spizella sparrow.

Bob Royse


Robert Royse
[log in to unmask]
www.roysephotos.com

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]