I started at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo this morning and had three COMMON REDPOLLS feeding along the pond in the aspens.  I heard them before I saw them.  Shortly after I located them they flew off heading north and I did not relocate them.

Maumee Bay State Park was pretty slow but driving south of there I had a single SNOW GOOSE in with a flock of Canada Geese just north of the Chippewa Golf Course (north of Williston Rd- 579 that runs along the north side of the golf course).

Ottawa NWR was frozen over and proved to be a very long and unproductive walk.

Castalia Lake had a lot of ducks on it.  It was all expected species but the little lake was pretty packed in with ducks.  There was a Mallard there that appeared to be partially leucistic.  On his back where there should have been light gray, it was all white.  There are several domestic ducks and mixed ducks on the lake, but I do not think he was a domestic/mallard hybrid.  Obviously not a rarity but it was something interesting to look at.

Sheldon's Marsh Nature Preserve proved a worthwhile stop when a MARSH WREN popped up in the reeds and scolded several times.  I saw it from the second observation deck that juts into the marsh.  It only popped up for no reason I could see and trying to pish it back up once it dove back down proved useless.

My last stop was Oberlin Reservoir for the Iceland and Glaucous Gull.  I arrived around 3:00 and had neither but did have a single LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL in with the herring, ring-billed, and great black-backs.  I figured the gulls were probably roosting on the reservoir so I hung around and initially this looked to be true as I had a constant stream of gulls coming in.  A little after 3:30 the ICELAND GULL flew in.  A lot more birds came in over the next hour but also began to cycle back to the landfill.  A little after 4:30 nearly all the gulls flew up and moved to the landfill, and since it was beginning to get darker, I cut my losses and left without the Glaucous.  The Iceland Gull was my 100th Ohio bird for January.

On the way home I bumped into a SHORT-EARED OWL coursing the farm fields at the intersection of Eby Road and Pleasant Home Road just north of Smithville, OH.  This is certainly the closest Short-ears I have ever had to home (less than 4 mi)!

Good Birding!

-Ryan Steiner
Smithville, OH

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