Although Hoover Reservoir is still mostly iced in there are openings beginning to appear, mostly south of the Smothers Road Bridge. Linda and I checked out the reservoir this morning to determine whether anything interesting was around. In the spillway beneath the dam we observed Common Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, and a lone Redhead. The creek below this was mainly Mallards with a couple of Great Blue Herons. Above the dam along with a multitude of Canada Geese we located Hooded Mergansers, and a Greater Scaup which was surprisingly close to the shore. In the sunlight the green head was very easy to distinguish from the purple of the Lesser Scaup. At Area C there was a large area of open water and it was here that we hit pay dirt. The Canada Geese were actually outnumbers by the ducks. Present were over 200 Redheads, approximately 100 Hooded Mergansers, 40-50 Red-breasted Mergansers, 5 Common Mergansers, 15 Bufflehead, 12 Common Goldeneyes, 2 Northern Pintails, 17 Lesser Scaup, 7 Northern Shovelers, 2 Canvasbacks, 200+ Mallards and 3 Horned Grebes. At the tree line at the south end of the parking lot Linda got her Red-winged Blackbird and Common Grackle for the year. She plans not to look at anymore of them for the rest of the year - good luck with that! There is open water off the Baldridge Boat Ramp north of the intersection with Big Walnut Road. Present at this site were 100's of Canada Geese with a couple of swans sleeping among them. From what I could perceive they are likely Mute Swans. Ducks were represented by more Hooded Mergansers and a small group of Red-breasted Mergansers and 5 or 6 Northern Pintails. Oxbow Road is still iced in with the only open water viewable being south from the end parking lot. Here we located mostly Canada Geese with some Mallards and a few American Black Ducks. On the way out I spotted an adult Bald Eagle in the tree line to the north of the first parking area. Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve Delorme 58 C (2) & (3) <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]