This is not a joke.

My wife and I went to Hoover Reservoir after birding in Dayton, at Eastwood Metropark where we observed surf scoters, red necked grebe, and a couple horned grebes.

We headed to Hoover Reservoir after reading reports of many waterfowl from this email list. 

We spotted a male and female hooded merganser, a male and female long tailed duck in full breeding plumage, many dc cormorants, a male and female ruddy, pied bill grebe, and buffleheads.

We headed down the reservoir farther in our vehicle to see what we could spot and stopped behind a marina, close to a boat ramp and small shelter picnic area. We sat observing a large number of cormorants and looked to our right, about 20 feet off the shore line sat a large black swanlike bird with an orange beak with a white stripe at the tip. None of our ohio birding books had this species. Dumbfounded my wife googled black swan like bird. The exact bird came up- black swan- native to Australia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are in shock and disbelief. If anyone has any information on this bird or have seen it before, please let us know.

We are still reeling from the experience.

Jim and Mandy Coppersmith
Dayton, OH
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