Sandy Tkach and I conducted the February census today in very cold conditions. Starting temp was 17 and ending was 27 with 10-20 mph NW winds over an island that was snow covered and surrounded on 3 sides by ice. Only the eastern side of the island had any open water and visibility there was hampered by bright sunlight and distance. The scaup appeared to be at a 60-40 ratio of Greater to Lesser. Most of the unidentified ducks were probably mostly goldeneye, mergansers and scaup. The highlight of the day came shortly before noon as we spotted a soaring immature Golden Eagle off Woodford Road. The bird came from the north and moved off the southside of the island towards the Marblehead peninsula. This is Sandy's and my first Golden Eagle for the island. 8 Canada Goose 2 Gadwall 1 American Black Duck 5 Mallard 1 Mallard X American Black Duck 12 Canvasback 18 Redhead 1603 Greater Scaup 1215 Lesser Scaup 1500 Scaup species 23 Bufflehead 627 Common Goldeneye 452 Common Merganser 16 Red-breasted Merganser 2400 unidentified diving ducks 7 Bald Eagle (4 ad, 3 imm) 2 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Golden Eagle (imm) 43 Herring Gull 4 Great Black-backed Gull 75 Gull species 1 Eastern Screech-Owl 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 12 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 2 Blue Jay 41 American Crow 22 Horned Lark 43 Black-capped Chickadee 5 Brown Creeper * Carolina Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Hermit Thrush 6 American Robin 27 European Starling 3 Yellow-rumped Warbler 33 Northern Cardinal 3 American Tree Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 38 White-throated Sparrow 31 Dark-eyed Junco 38 House Finch 2 American Goldfinch 36 House Sparrow 41 Total species 8367 Total individuals 10 year average = 38.7 species and 4785 individuals for February census * = observed on island but not on census route. Tom Bartlett Tiffin, Ohio [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]