Howdy All,
I discovered that my total list reported after three days was low by two species.  I missed reporting Swamp Sparrow seen on the East Fork Christmas count and did not count the Winter Wren.  So, I started Saturday, 01/16/10 with 77 species.  I ended the Saturday, 01/16/10 with 88 species.

I started the day at Grand Valley Park/Camp Dennison looking for several waterfowl still missing from my list.  All of the ponds were frozen except for a hole in the south pond where I found new birds Northern Shoveler-2 (m) and Green-winged Teal-1 (m).  The Green-winged Teal was feeding on the ice edge somehow finding food.  The Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Hooded Merganser and Mute Swan were still present.  I was lucky that the fog was still high enough that at first I could see from the dike along the road, when I first saw the N. Shovelers.  When the fog dropped obscuring my view from the road side dike, I went to the park in Camp Dennison and was able to see the Northern Shovelers and find the male Green-winged Teal.  I heard later from other birders that the fog dropped further obscuring a good view.  I thought I heard a Red-winged Blackbird only once flying over in the fog, but couldn't find it and decided that I was hearing a Starling doing an imitation or a similar sound.

Next I went Armeleder Park hoping for pipits.  I found American Pipits-2, flying over and calling.  I checked out the extensive sparrow habitat, looking for Savannah Sparrows, even though they have not been reported there recently.  No luck.  The snow and cold weather probably drove them south. I met Jonathan Frodge, who had found a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds along the river.  So, we returned to the rivers edge and found them.  There was one long-tailed bird in the group and a few potential candidates for Rusty Blackbird in the flock, but I didn't have a scope at that time and they were too distant for a cloudy day to identify.  Other birds present but not new were two different flocks of White-crowned Sparrows, 10 in each, and lots of Song Sparrows and Tree Sparrows.  There was a small flock of about 8 Horned Larks, several Red-tailed Hawks, one American Kestrel and two immature Red-shouldered Hawks.

Next stop was St. Joe Cemetery on West Eighth Street.  I found a Merlin by driving up the hill from the entrance building on Seton Road.  The local crows were harassing it.

I headed west to the Lost Bridge area.  There I found the Common Goldeneye-8 (1 m the rest f or imm.), Ross' Goose-1, Northern Pintail-1 (m) and Common Merganser-18.  There was a second smaller white goose, but I could not get a good look at its bill.  I kept its head tucked, and when it un-tucked its head, it was actively preening and moving too fast to see the bill well.  There was a large white domestic goose, with bright orange bill, legs and feet and bigger than the Canada Geese.  Hopefully, this was not previously reported as a Snow Goose.  The N. Pintail appeared when some shooting flushed a large flock (+300) of Mallards and Black ducks off the river.  The Common Mergansers were on the river, south of the bridge (scope necessary).  Other birds while I was there were one adult Bald Eagle, perched in a tree north of the bridge in back of the gravel operation, one Northern Harrier, hundreds maybe 1000 Canada Geese and at least 20 Gadwall, a few American Coot and at least one female Ring-necked Duck.  I checked the cornfield to the south, but there was no flock of Horned Larks, longspurs, etc. visible while I was present.

Next I stopped at the end of Southwest Parkway and found at least one Lapland Longspur in a flock of about 250 Horned Larks.  Every time the whole flock flew I heard the dry rattle flight call of Lapland Longspur.  I looked for Snow Bunting in this flock but never saw any.  Turn left on Dry Fork off of I-74, continue straight across Simonson on Southwest to the dead-end.

I continued to Miami Whitewater to the wetlands, and stayed at the observation hut until almost 6:00 pm. watching for the Short-eared Owl recently reported.  No luck.  However, up to six Northern Harriers were seen north of the observation hut, with up to five sitting on the ground in view at one time.  There was one male ("gray ghost") in the mix.   Just before I left the observation area, a flock of Common Grackles-5 flew by followed a little later by a single Common Grackle.  A third group of three blackbirds flew over, but I did not see them well enough to identify them.
Jay

Jay G. Lehman
Cincinnati, OH
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