On this past Thursday, June 21, Don and Beth Carnahan photographed, from their back porch, a family of Common Mergansers, mom and seven or eight kids, on Yellow Creek in Jefferson County. The significance is that, even though we have seen adult Common Mergansers on Yellow Creek the past three years during The Breeding Bird Atlas, no photo documentation of family units was ever achieved. It has been now! Congrats Don and Beth. Yellow Creek is located in the extreme northeast corner of Jefferson County, entering the Ohio River just south of, and adjacent to Columbiana County.  From the town of Hammondsville, upstream for about the next eight miles to the Lake George Area, Yellow Creek is a sandstone bottom free flowing stream, parallelled by hemlocks and sycamores, providing a birder's paradise. The Jefferson County nesting confirmation of Common Mergansers makes the fourth county in Ohio to have these statuesque beauties. In 2004, Jim Dolan, a Columbiana County birder and outdoorsman, found and provided the first photo documented record for Ohio. The location was on scenic Little Beaver Creek. Interestingly, the nesting records for Ohio are from Columbiana County, adjacent to the state of Pennsylvania along the Ohio River, then Ashtabula County, adjacent to the state of Pennsylvania, along Lake Erie. Next comes Lake County, adjacent to Ashtabula County and Lake Erie, and finally Jefferson County, adjacent to Columbiana County, and the Ohio River. Seems to be a definite westward progression. The first young of the 2012 season were on Little Beaver Creek in mid April, the Carnahan's brood from the photos, appeared to be only several weeks old, giving an idea of the breeding season duration. Amusingly, the sighting location is only five miles southwest, by the way a crow flies, from Mountaineer Racetrack And Casino, across the Ohio River in Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia.  Bob and Denise Lane    



                                          
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