Sorry for the late post. Yesterday, Bill Whan, Paul Gardner and myself visited several locations in the Sandusky region, with some points south on the way back to Columbus. We birded at Castalia Pond, Bayview, Medusa Marsh, Magee Marsh, Ottawa NWR, Metzger Marsh, and Maumee Bay SP, and then went south to the Longbrake Wetlands and Killdeer Plains. Highlights included: Huge numbers of diving ducks along the lake, mainly Lesser Scaup, Canvasback, Common Goldeneye and Redheads. Some Greater Scaup were present, along with Ring-necked Ducks and Bufflehead. Common Mergansers seemed to be the most common merganser, followed by Hooded Merganser and Red-Breasted Merganser. Canada Geese were ubiquitous everywhere. We observed decent numbers of American Widgeon and Mallards, along with a few Northern Pintails, Black Ducks, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, and Green-Winged Teal. Notable were the Wood Ducks we observed in multiple locations, and the two drake Blue-Winged Teal we found in a flloded field along SR 103 in Hancock County. Perhaps the most impressive sight was at Maumee Bay SP, where tens of thousands of ducks are concentrated along the edge of the ice, well within scoping distance. They nearly stretched in a band from horizon to horizon along the lakefront in this location. Ottawa NWR held a huge number of Tundra Swans, over 1300. Also of note were a Horned Grebe and a Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser hybrid at Medusa Marsh, which seemed to be the best spot in terms of overall diversity. Other birds of note: Killdeer seem to be back in force. Red-Winged Blackbirds were found everywhere, along with Common Grackles. We tried hard for Rusty Blackbirds but the flocks we found with possible candidates all spooked before we could get positive IDs. Raptors observed include Bald Eagles, Red-Tailed Hawks, Red-Shouldered Hawks, Northern Harriers, Rough-Legged Hawks, and American Kestrels. We did have at least one Chipping Sparrow in Bayview as well. We kept an eye out for snipe but didn't see any. Turkey Vultures seemed to be pretty common south of the lake. Andrew R. Sewell, MS, RPA Principal Investigator Historical/Industrial Archaeology Hardlines Design Company 4608 Indianola Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43214 ph. (614)-784-8733 fax (614)-784-9336 _____ This mailbox protected from junk email by MailFrontier Desktop from MailFrontier, Inc. http://info.mailfrontier.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]