During the midday, Jeff Grabmeier and I birded the northeastern shore of the Hoover Reservoir Nature Preserve today (7/28). We had 11 species of shorebird and LAUGHING GULL. Our best bird was a very early BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. We found the bird by entering at the Yacht Club entrance off of Sunbury Rd east of Galena. We then hiked westward along the abandoned blacktop road to the second mowed path to the south. This lead us to the reservoir shore with Pelican Island (now a peninsula) on our left and a small bay in front of us. The right bank of the small bay was a large spit that extends south into the reservoir then hooks left. The Buff-breasted sandpiper was found near the wide base of the spit in the short grass. The bird never came within 20 yards of the water's edge. The view was distant (~100 yards), but Jeff and I scoped it with 20X to 60X power. We saw well the plain face, and the dark centers and pale edges of the feathers of the bird's back. At this distance I could not make out the fine streaking of the breast, but the breast was buffier than the belly. When a pectoral sandpiper walked close by, it had a much more dramatic demarcation between the breast streaking and the belly. The buff-breasted was about the same size as the pectoral but seemed more gracile. Peterjohn gives July 30 as the earliest fall date for BB sandpiper in Ohio with most occurring mid-August and later. Confirmation of this bird would be most appreciated. A LAUGHING GULL was loafing with ring-billed gulls and two Caspian terns at the end of the spit. Three SANDERLINGS were foraging along the north end of Pelican Island. These birds were found when we followed the first mowed path from the blacktop to the lake and made a very muddy hike westward. Noteworthy birds seen (Hoover Reservoir): Semipalmated Plover Black-bellied Plover - two in transitional plumage Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper SANDERLING - along Pelican Island Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER LAUGHING GULL Caspian Tern Happy Birding, Paul Gardner Columbus, 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]