This morning and early afternoon I made a loop of several areas within the nature preserve. Activity was hit or miss as one area would be productive and the next quiet. With the reservoir free of ice the waterfowl are distributed wide and far. The areas I checked included Oxbow Road, Mudhen Marsh, Hoover Meadows and Old Sunbury Road. Outing total was 63 species but nothing outstanding. A warning to birders heading to the north reaches of Hoover Reservoir, Delaware County is about to begin work to replace a small bridge on Sunbury Road west of the Woodtown-Harlem Road/Sunbury Road intersection. The road will likely be closed until completion of the bridge replacement. I have not heard of a bypass to the work. To get to Hoover Meadows and Old Sunbury Road you will need to take a route from the west through Galena. Species present: Canada Geese Mute Swan (13) American Wigeon American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler (6) Green-winged Teal (2) Canvasback (1) Ring-necked Duck (7) Lesser Scaup (5) Bufflehead (4) Common Goldeneye (8) Hooded Merganser (76) Most in the south cove at Oxbow Road Common Merganser (5) Oxbow Road Red-breasted Merganser (223) Over 100 at Oxbow Road and nearly 100 in the Old Sunbury Road coves along the east shore Pied-billed Grebe (1) Horned Grebe (1) Double-crested Cormorant (7) Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Bald eagle (2) East shore just north of Oxbow Road Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel American Coot Killdeer Bonaparte's Gull (5) Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull (1) Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Barred Owl (2) Pine grove at Old Sunbury Road Red-headed Woodpecker (1) Mudhen Marsh Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Blue Jay American Crow Horned Lark (17) Miller-Paul Road, south of Vans Valley Road Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Eastern Bluebird American Robin Northern Mockingbird European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler American Tree Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve Delorme 58 C (2) & (3) ************************************** 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]