Conditions were steady 30 mph winds and scattered snow storms. Temps in the mid 20's Farenheit. A few glimpses of the sun. Headlands Beach S.P. Grt. Black-backed Gull - 3 Bonaparte's Gull Herring Gulls Ringbilled Gulls R.b. Mergansers Ruddy Ducks Horned Grebe D.C. Cormorant -1 Am. Coot American Tree Sparrow - lots FOX Sparrow - 2 Bald Eagle - 1 possible Pine Siskin - 3 plus birds I got a decent glimpse of tail feathers as they flew off Perry Park Harlequin Duck- 2 flyby Buffle Head Greater Scaup Am. Black Duck - 10 Red-breasted Merganser - 1000+ Tundra Swan - 50 flybys Jaeger sp. (looked like Pomarine, but a little far to be sure) - 1 it was a dark specimen that was little bigger than the ring-billed it chased Little Gull - 2 Bonaparte's Gull - 1000, we stopped counting at a thousand and left Grt. Black-backed Gull- 1 Ringbilled Gull - 174+ Herring Gull - 20 Eastlake - high waves, Mergansers and the usual gulls. E. 72nd Street area. (lots and lots and lots of gulls) Black-legged Kittiwake - 1, probly the same Juv. that has been there, flying and feeding quite striking once found. Little Gull - 3 Bonapartes - 500+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls - 2, one in the marina area on the water and 1 out in front of the water outlet. Great B.Backed - plenty Ring-billed Gulls - lots Herring Gulls - Lots Canvas Back - 1 Hooded Mergansers - 6 Red-breasted Mergainsers = 1000's Well, the plans were made a few days ago so we decided to go through with them, as John Kuenzli, Dan Sanders, and I went up to the Lake for some fun and adventure. I must admit I was a little less excited to go because I knew I should have been trying for the Western Tanager again this morning (congrats Jason et. al.) but decided to let that sighting literally cool off a little and try for my other current Ohio nemesis, Purple Sandpiper. We drove thru a good snowstorm dodging spinning cars and slow traffic, my trusty old bimmer cruised on thanks to the snow tires. The weather had cleared a bit when we got to Headlands, the gate to the back parking lot was closed so we took the back road fisherman's access. We were bundled up well and faced the strong winds and snow with a steely glint in our eyes (along with wind tears) and well insulated clothing. The breakwall prevented exploring past the beach very far due to the slick ice all over it further out. We AGAIN dipped on the Purple Sandpipers. Well I guess John allready has it for the year, but yeah we failed to produce one at any stops. Little Gulls were a good sight as we sat in our car at Perry park and counted Bonapartes that were streaming by, they were folowing those guys as they traveled west. The Jaeger flew in to the west and chased a couple gulls before dissappearing further to the west. Looked to be a Pom. due to size and flight style. This marks the 12th Jaeger I've seen on the lake in the past month's span of days. The Harlequins were seen flying with a group of Mergansers. At E. 72nd street we were met by high cold winds and chaotic vistas. Gulls were everywhere all facing the wind coming from the north, and circulating in a mass crowd at the water outlet and further out as well. I doubted that we'd find the Kittiwake in all this crazyness and the sheer numbers of gulls and movement. Our biggest hope was to find it somehow flying and see its bold wing pattern. We tried braving the wind here but it was blowing right in our face so we crossed the bridge by car and parked along the edge of the parkinglots across in the other park there. We saw the Little Gulls out with a more distant group of Bonaparte's through the spotting scope. Then all of a sudden (after being told to move the car by the plucky park 'police', apparently we were blocking the flow of traffic (all zero people who were crazy enough to be out there like us) and close inspection of our contraband cookies in ziplock bag) as i was saying all of a sudden John said he had the bird and then Dan saw it flying they were both on it and then lost it and then at last I found it again and we all watched as it dove rapidly and caught some fish and flew actively about in the crowd of gulls. Pretty cool, and John was stoked since it was a state-bird for him (second time for me). All in all a good days work. Other sightings include a COOPER'S HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK and another BALD EAGLE seen from the car. Speaking of that I saw 2 GREAT HORNED OWLS last night as I was driving around they appeared to be a courting pair since they followed each other accross the road near my house. Also seen Yesterday were 3 AMERICAN KESTRELS along my local roads. GREAT birding everyone, Ben -hoping to finally see the Tanager tomorrow morn.- Warner Sunbury Oh. ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]