A mid-afternoon survey of Hoover Reservoir (Columbus) turned up the
previously-reported pelicans and modest numbers of shorebirds.

The pelicans were visible from the boardwalk: at the last left turn going
out the boardwalk, look south over the spit of land with the Osprey
platform.  The tightly-bunched pelicans were sailing back and forth behind
the spit, sometimes disappearing from view behind the vegetation.  This view
is distant but it's pretty hard to mis-identify pelicans.

The pelicans also can be seen by walking to the edge of the mud flats from
the abandoned road that starts at the gate to the Yacht Club.  This view was
much closer but problematic:  the birds were behind a spit of land so that I
can see only their heads.  Again, pelican heads are pretty distinctive, but
the view actually was better from the boardwalk.

Mudflats are developing nicely near the boardwalk, but will be much better
if the water drops even a few more inches.  (All right, you birders in
northern Columbus -- go turn on your lawn sprinklers!)  Meanwhile, there is
a decent mudflat at the very end of the boardwalk.  Birds were kind of
sparse there, but the view were fabulous -- looking almost straight down at
a few birds and very close range for others.

Even better habitat is appearing in the extensive flats west of the Yacht
Club road mentioned above.  Unfortunately, the shore that was attracting the
birds was that across an inlet from this area.  And the ground on the newly
exposed flats in this area is way too soggy to permit walking well out
toward the water.  So all views were fairly distant; nonetheless, some nice
birds were identifiable, especially a lone American Golden-plover.  A bird
with seemingly long primary projections was there, too, but it was just too
far away to get any detail.

Here's my list:

American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Canada Goose
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
American Golden-plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Short-billed Dowitcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
American Robin
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
American Crow


--
Bill Heck

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