I checked the Struthers--Lowellville stretch of the Mahoning R. yesterday morning and found Canada geese, Am. black duck, mallards, 2 buffleheads, 5 c.. goldeneyes, 28 hooded mergansers, great blue heron, and n. mockingbird. I went up to Ashtabula next. There was more ice than I expected there. The river, harbor, and shoreline were all locked up. Waterfowl and gulls could only be seen by scoping way out at the edge of the ice. With the very rough lake and snow/frizzle cutting down visibility, birding wasn't very productive. I found: 125 Canada geese, mallards, 10 canvasbacks, buffleheads, 40 c. goldeneyes, 75 common mergansers, 20 red-breasted mergansers, and 20 great black-backed gulls. An Am. robin was seen towards town. I went over to Conneaut next, it was also all frozen up near shore. Only the expected 3 gull species were seen there. What WAS interesting to see was a big ship stuck in the ice right where the harbor meets the mouth
of Conneaut Creek. A guy I talked to said he was monitoring the communications of the ship's captain on some sort of scanner he had. The ship had tried to play icebreaker to get in the channel and load/unload and got stuck. The captain was calling home base for advice. It was another of those "only at Conneaut" moments. Can you imagine how bad it would suck to have to make THAT phone call to your boss?? So then I went down to Pymatuning Res. At the causeway there were some open-water areas on both the Ohio and the PA sides. In Ohio were 525 Canada geese, 60 mallards, 5 canvasbacks, 5 c. goldeneyes, a Bonaparte's gull, and ring-billed gulls. Barely half a mile over the border in PA were some more ducks and a RED-THROATED LOON. That's the first time I've seen this species in January. Craig Holt, Lowellville
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