I birded Antrum Lake this morning (to minimize the freeway noise from nearby State 315) and was surprised to find 2 Common Loons on the water and 2 others flying over. Thinking that a loon migrant wave might be a-wing, I headed up to Alum Lake, and found a few more, including a RED-THROATED. The day had other interesting birds as well, highlights being: Diving Ducks - flocks of Lesser Scaup included 10 off New Galena and 90 off Alum Point. 2 Bufflhead were mixed in with the former, while 2 Redhead were bobbing with the latter. Mergansers - small flocks of Red-throateds included 24 off the Alum Lake dam and another 14 off Alum Point Cormorants - small numbers at several spots on Alum Lake, but nothing like the numbers over at nearby Hoover Reservoir. Grebes - 2 Horned & 1 Pied-billed were at Antrum Lake, while another 8 Horned were at Summer Ridge Access at ALum Lake Loons - 4 Common at Antrum were matched by another 4 at Summer Ridge Access. Better still was a Red-throated just offshore at SUmmer Ridge access. Gulls - only a scattering of Ring-bills & Bonapartes, mostly around the Cheshire causeway at Alum Lake Turkey Vultures - 14-16 were slowly gliding north over the Cheshire causeway in about 20 minutes of observation time. Swallows - Tree swallows at many locations, including 10+ at the west end of Alum Lake dam. These were joined by a male PURPLE MARTIN (first of the Spring here) Thrushes,Mimids - many Robins, but no other migrant thrushes. Brown Thrashers singing at several of the access points along Alum Lake Warblers - first local YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER singing along the Olentangy River at Antrum Lake Sparrows - a Fox sparrows was still lurking in the shrubbery at Antrum Lake, while Field Sparrows & Chipping Sparrows were ther and at Alum Lake (where both were singing and widespread). Rob Thorn [log in to unmask] EarthLink Revolves Around You. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]