Hello, I went out late Saturday afternoon to do my GBBC birding. I went to a local walking trail that has a couple of ponds nearby. On the first pond (probably a couple acres surface area), which normally has only Mallards and sometimes Canada Geese (there are houses all around half of its perimeter), there were about 120 Mallards swarming around a small opening of unfrozen water about the size of your living room in near the middle of the frozen pond. That would've been cool enough, but it was made 10 times cooler by the unexpected presence of 5 male Canvasbacks, 3 male Redheads, a single female Common Goldeneye (she might have been married, actually, but I couldn't tell...her husband definitely was not around! :)), and 4 Black Ducks, all vying for a piece of the open water. Actually, the "lowly" Mallards never contested the presence of the "stately" Canvasbacks and "distinguished" Redheads. The female Goldeneye just seemed embarrassed to be in such motly company! She acted like a rich lady forced by necessity to shop at a thrift store, always looking around to see who was watching. Altogether, it was quite a sight. It seemed like the only way that water could've remained unfrozed was by the sheer numbers of Mallards who use it--maybe by their constant swimming and sitting in that water (literally PACKED with duck bodies) they manage to keep it from freezing. Has anyone observed anything like this before and know how to explain it? I was able to watch the Redheads and Goldeneye diving for food, so hopefully there is something under there to sate their appetites. Among the other birds I saw were nothing unusual, just a TON of cardinals, a few Tree Sparrows, a bunch of juncos, and I did have one Common Grackle fly over. For those who live in the area and might want to check out the pond, it is along walking trail adjacent to the intersection of Steffi Dr. and Valencia Park Blvd. The walking trail belongs to the residents of the large Hilliard Village and Hilliard Commons developments, but the pond is on a piece of adjacent property (to the north) that seems like a public area. It's gotta be a stormwater overflow containment pond or something, it's definitely man-made. Nate Nye Hilliard, OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]