On Dec. 8, 2007 I made several stops on Hoover Reservoir and had some interesting sightings at some of them. At Oxbow Recreation area I saw two pairs of house finches, numerous cardinals, and two hairy woodpeckers. I saw two immature red tail hawks and one adult. There wasn't much in the way of waterfowl here because the water was still frozen but I did see some Canada Geese walking on the ice and three herons in flight. At Mudhen Marsh I saw the resident kingfisher, a merlin, and two herons in flight as well as numerous Cardinals. Baldridge boat ramp was the highlight of the day. Just south of the boat ramp there was a large flock of geese. There were two or three (maybe even more) subspecies of Canada Geese in the flock. One was much smaller than the geese we see in suburban Columbus and was probably a Richardson's goose. There were snow geese, greater white fronted geese and even a tundra Swan in the mix. Farther south I saw Buffleheads and Hoode Mergansers (male and female of both species). Afterward I went to the dam. There was a pair of Hooded Mergansers and numerous Mallards on the spillway pond. Above the dam just off the eastern shore were two pairs of Buffleheads. I walked along the western shore just above the dam and saw two great blue herons fishing. A kingfisher flew by close to the surface of the water. I've never seen a kingfisher on that part of the lake so I'm thinking he was forced south because his territory is frozen over. Of couse there were the usual ring billed gulls flying overhead and perched on the light posts. Below the dam on the west side of the creek near the top of the hill is a bald tree that is used as a roost by a couple of black vultures. I have observed them there the past two or three weeks. The tree they use for a roost was used as a roost by turkey vultures over the summer. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]