I was checking out the ponds at Old Reid Park in Springfield today for ducks and stumbled on two Long-tailed Ducks. Old Reid Park is on the south side of Croft Road about 1/4 mile downstream of the dam at C.J. Brown Reservoir/Buck Creek State Park. Photos of them are posted at the photo gallery on the OOS forum here: http://www.ohiobirds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1466#p1466 There have been good numbers of ducks there for several weeks. It is a great place to get close looks at Gadwall and Northern Shovelers in the wintertime. (There have been 50-75 of each here every time I checked it the last 2 weeks.) Besides those today, there were several hundred Mallards and Canada Geese, 2 Black Ducks, a few Hooded Mergansers, and a lone Ruddy Duck. Also of note this week, I have seen a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk in the area below the dam. On Monday and Tuesday it was kiting in the wind over the big prairie field along Overlook Drive (north of Croft Road), and this morning I saw it fly over Old Reid Park and start hovering over an adjacent brushy field. Brian Menker Dayton/Springfield No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.14/1172 - Release Date: 12/5/2007 8:41 AM ______________________________________________________________________ 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]