This morning I began with a quick stop at Oxbow Road in the Hoover Nature Preserve to look for the Tundra Swans reported earlier. No luck with the swans but I did find some activity worth noting. In the coves as you head back to the rear parking area I observed 10 Pied-billed Grebes, 4 Horned Grebes, 3 Ruddy Ducks, 2 Hooded Mergansers, and several Great Blue Herons. I then walked the trail to the north side of Oxbow Island to the overlook. The best find here was 2 Bald Eagles sitting in a cottonwood tree on the east side of the island. In addition there were many Yellow-rumped Warblers, as well as Brown Creepers, White-throated Sparrows, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets and 2 Winter Wrens. From the overlook at the end I observed rafts of Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaup and Hooded Mergansers, plus many Bonaparte's Gulls. I next visited the pine grove behind the Headquarters Building at Alum Creek (this is not the same as the visitors center). I looped the trail through the pines hoping for a Saw-whet Owl since they have been banding several near Chillicothe but no luck with the Saw-whets. Instead I located 3 Barred Owls. Other species present in the pines and along the edge of the pond included 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, 7 Brown Creepers, 20 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 8 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, many Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-throated Sparrows, 3 White-crowned Sparrows, and 4 Winter Wrens. It was a morning of quiet solitude that allowed me to meander and savor the birds peacefully. Charlie Bombaci ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]