There was a fantastic movement of birds today. There was steady movement of gulls overhead. For a while they were passing by at a rate of 200+ birds a minute. Gulls were also moving west low over the ice. There were steady groups of ducks flying out over the narrow lead of open water. Gull totals would have been higher except around 8:30 they moved further inland (100-200 feet), where I was unable to watch them and also the lake. the vast majority of the gulls were ring-billed gulls. Wither the strong west winds the amount of open water decreased from about 10% to less than 5% by the time I quit watching. this evening there was about 5% open water. Location- Lakeshore Reservation, North Perry, Lake County Date- March 4, 2007, Time- 7:00-9:30 Weather- Cloudy, Winds- W 15-20 Temperature- 28 F, Barometer- 29.91-29.95 Humidity- 79-77, Dew point- 22 Ice cover- 90-95%, Flight direction- west Canada Goose 4 Canvasback 28 Redhead 19 Bufflehead 4 Common goldeneye 60 Hooded merganser 2 Common merganser 1,285 Red-breasted merganser 697 Ring-billed gull 31,860 Herring gull 1,324 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL 1 adult GLAUCOUS GULL 1 adult Great Black-backed 98 John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 440-259-2751 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]