Hadn't thought to post this as there really was not much to seen. But those perhaps travelling through the area on their way to see a towhee my have an interest as to what is about. Mon I picnicked atop the observation tower at Magee Marsh. The 24 mph winds and 27 deg temps weren't ideal but at least the sun come out after the morning snow squall. The 6 hr effort yielded 3 Bald Eagles and a Red-tailed Hawk ... typical of a NW wind. Two local Rough-legged Hawks hunted the entrance road all day. Tue 6 Mar ... drove about the Sandusky Bay area ... really very little to see as ice cover was still fairly complete. Castalia Pond Canada Goose - 670 Mute Swan - 2 Gadwall - 16 American Black Duck - 4 (absurdly low number) Mallard - 59 American Wigeon - 48 Northern Shoveler - 71 Northern Pintail - 2 Redhead - 68 Canvasback - 42 Lesser Scaup - 58 Greater Scaup - 14 Ring-necked Duck - 28 Bufflehead - 6 Common Goldeneye - 2 Ruddy Duck - 4 American Coot - 18 This is among the larger bay duck concentrations I have recorded for this pond, and certainly the first time bay ducks have outnumbered puddle ducks. The Sandusky Bay was open at Bay View under the Rt.2 bridge. Normally this is ideal for making for some nice concentrations especially of Canvasback which can number upwards of 9000 briefly at ice break up. However, on this day, there was very little worth noting. The bulk of the waterfowl were made up of ... Redhead - 750+ Canvasback - 900+ Scaup spp. - 250+ Common Merganser - 1100+ the 12,000+ Ring-billed Gulls were largely devoid of Herring Gulls and no other gull species were seen. Some open water at Medusa Marsh (mainly south of Rt. 2) held ... Canada Goose - 960 Mute Swan - 24 Tundra Swan - 2 Gadwall - 30+ Mallard - 100+ Northern Shoveler - 2 Ameircan Wigeon - 15+ Ring-necked Duck - 12 Redhead - 100+ Greater Scaup - 5 Lesser Scaup - 19 Hooded Merganser - 8 American Coot - 6 Huron harbor area was completely frozen. East Harbor, Catawba I., Port Clinton were also iced in. On the other hand, should you simply enjoy Bald Eagles, right now it is hard to miss them ...with a dozen or more noted while driving Rt. 2 ... many coursing low over the highway, or otherwise perched on the ice from the Huron River to Sandusky Bay and the Portage River. cheers Vic Fazio Shaker Heights, OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]