Hi all: I managed to squeeze in some birding yesterday after a weekend of household chores, and decided to stay local and pad my year list which has been sorely neglected in the last month. I visited Greenlawn Cemetery, Blacklick Creek Metropark, Blendon Woods Metropark, and a couple locations in the Hoover Dam area between noon and 3:30. Greenlawn was nearly devoid of birds - the feeders were empty which was probably a factor, but there was no activity at the ravine either and hardly anything around during a cruise around the grounds in search of the merlin. I did see a falcon flying high up and headed east, but it was silhouetted against the sky and I couldn't identify it. Canada Goose 2 Blue Jay 1 American Crow 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Next was the nature center at Blacklick Creek in hopes of Fox Sparrow and Purple Finch, but no luck on those species either. There were 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches at the feeder though. Canada Goose 4 Mallard 42 Great Blue Heron 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Carolina Chickadee 12 Tufted Titmouse 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Dark-eyed Junco 2 Northern Cardinal 10 House Sparrow 20 I then went up to Blendon Woods to check out the pond and feeders. The pond has a great number of Black Ducks present, along with a small assortment of diving ducks. Canada Goose 61 Mute Swan 1 American Wigeon 2 American Black Duck 320 American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) 2 Mallard 115 Canvasback 1 Redhead 12 Lesser Scaup 7 Hooded Merganser 1 Mourning Dove 5 Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 Blue Jay 2 Carolina Chickadee 4 Tufted Titmouse 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 4 American Tree Sparrow 2 Song Sparrow 4 White-crowned Sparrow 1 Northern Cardinal 14 American Goldfinch 2 House Sparrow 15 It had started to rain off and on by this point, so I went up the east side of Hoover Reservoir, hoping for a Pileated Woodpecker or two in some of the spots we had them during the CBC in December. I didn't really stop to check out the actual reservoir for waterfowl. The spillway didn't have much in the way of waterfowl, just 12 Mallards and 5 Common Goldeneye. The most interesting find of the day was at the Twin Bridges Boat Ramp, where I observed 2 Black Vultures in the company of a single Turkey Vulture in a tree over the road, just south of the southernmost bridge. I observed these birds closely as I know that immature Turkey Vultures can resemble Black Vultures. I identified the Black Vultures based on their short tails, true black plumage, and a glimpse of white wing tips as they preened. Having the Turkey Vulture on hand for comparison helped, as it let me confirm the plumage coloration of the Black Vultures as truly black and not dark brown, and also to compare tail lengths. My last stop at Hoover was Mudhen Marsh for Red-headed Woodpecker, which I did finally see after waiting for 20 minutes in the blind. The only water fowl here were Canada Geese, as the pond is frozen over. I also had a Yellow-rumped Warbler on the trail to the blind. Hoover area list: Canada Goose 28 Mallard 13 Common Goldeneye 5 Black Vulture 2 Turkey Vulture 1 Ring-billed Gull 8 Red-headed Woodpecker 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 2 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 1 Carolina Chickadee 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Northern Cardinal 3 Andy Sewell Columbus, Ohio _____ This mailbox protected from junk email by MailFrontier Desktop from MailFrontier, Inc. http://info.mailfrontier.com ______________________________________________________________________ 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]