Greetings all. Dan Sanders and I Had a pretty good day yesterday, Sorry for the late post. We started things off at Fairport Harbor and then Headlands Beach S.P. where we ran into Jerry Talkington, Ray Hanikman (sp.? sorry), and Jim (McCarty?). They gave us a nice tip off on a Common Loon that was out there on the Fairport side feeding. We also ran into them again at Mentor Lagoons where they were tracking down a Brown Creeper that we also got to see, Thanks men. These guys are out birding these areas nearly every day its seems. Dan and I made the rather pleasant walk out the breakwall to the tip. The weather was ideal for it so thats why I say it was pleasant and fun in a semi-tricky/dangerous sort of way. The wind was coming out of the south at our backs so the waves were small (although I think it did have something to do with low numbers of gulls) but that was good. The little Purple was wayyy out at the end past the lighthouse that is fenced up and taking shelter behind the large iron sides to the cement circular pads out there, feeding away in the pool that has formed there. When we saw it was resting for a moment beside the iron wall and we froze to watch it from about 20 feet away. Then as we watched it decided it had had enough of a rest and approached us to feed in the pool that was infront of us. We held still and watched. He was able to grab several food items from the pool and in the water we could see things and minnows swimming around. This pool has undoubtedly been nourished by the waves. After watching quietly for a bit he then walked behind the iron curtain again and we felt we could leave without disturbing it, and it worked well. We also saw the Mink out on the break wall. Here is a highlights list; Fairport: Common Mergansers - 4-5 whith a beauty of a Drake. Comm. Goldeneye - 3 D.C. Cormorant - 1 Pied-billed Grebes - 2 Headlands: Purple Sandpiper - 1 (and a very nice first shorebird of the year!) American Black Duck - 1 flyby American Tree Sparrows Mentor Lagoons Red-breasted Mergs - (seen most every stop as well) Hairy Woodpecker - male, in the woods which are great for woodpeckers Downy Woodpecker - male Brown Creeper - 1 Bald Eagle - 1 adult (or at least mostly in adult plumes, perhaps it was just feather wear on the tail) Eastlake Plant Red-breasted Mergs. Peregrine Falcon - 1 in the nest box on the tower Sim's Park White-winged Scoter - 6 or so Black Scoter - 8+ Surf Scoter - 6 or so (we just estimated rather than count, total scoters seen was counted to be 25 apprx.) Common Goldeneye - hundreds of the beauties, big raft out there mixed w/ some Scaup Lesser Scaup - 20 Bufflehead - 10 etc. E. 72nd and 55th Street parks Bonaparte's Gulls - 200 or so Herring Gulls Ringbilled Gulls Great Black-backed Gulls - 10+ LESSER-BlACK-BACKED GULL - 1 Peregrine Falcon - 1 zipped all over and scared the bonaparts as it tried to nab one. it missed as far as we saw it. Burke Lakefront Airport American Kestrel - 2 (male and female) Horned Lark - 3 (scared up by the frequent small aircraft traffic today) Merwin Street, the flats district on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland Black-Crowned Night-herons - counted about 40, with 4 or more immatures Belted Kingfisher - 1 Driving on 71 home: American Kestrel Red-tailed Hawk - 3 Cooper's Hawk - 1 adult plumaged bird Well it was quite a day but I was quite tired afterwards. It was fun, always glad to get up there. Good Birding, - Ben 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. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. 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]