Sorry for the late post, but my fingers are only now thawing out :-). I hiked and drove around the lower reaches of Hoover Reservoir yesterday, during the first flurries and frigid wind blasts. Areas out of the wind were tolerable, but open areas had a remarkable wind chill for April. Despite the big weather change, few unusual birds were blown in to this spot. "Highlights", such as they were, included Diving Ducks - only noted were a small flotilla of 12-14 Lesser Scaup off the Walnut St. boat ramp Mergansers - a few Red-br. Mergansers were lingering at several locations, and a pair of Hoodeds were feeding in the dam spillway Turkey Vultures - despite the frozen wind, 2-3 vultures were soaring around over the dam Swallows - as noted by several other observers, Tree Swallows were out and seemingly unaffected by the severe cold. I watched a swarm of about 50+ foraging in the spillway below the dam, while another 10-20 were daintily hovering over the surface of the wind-swept reservoir, picking something off the water surface. 2 Rough-wings were in the throng below the dam, but no Cliffs or Barns were in evidence here (which is unusual, since this is a good spot to find them in early April). Kinglets, Gantcatchers - small numbers of both Golden-crowned kinglets and Blue-gray gnatcatchers were scattered in the woods east of the dam, in windless pockets. Sparrows - a stray Savannah sparrow was foraging along the grassy berm of the dam, while Chipping & Field sparrows were at several locations, along with 4-5 juncos. 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]