With light winds and little peeks of sunlight, the bird migration began heating up this morning. We heard our first chipping sparrows as we opened the garage door this morning. The "vulture tree" visible west of our back yard held 20 TVs who roosted overnight. Year after year, they all seem to come to the same tree, spring and fall, ignoring nearby trees that are equal in size. Our usual cast of characters at the feeders included Cardinals, Red- & White-breasted Nuthatches, Carolina Wren, B-c Chickadees, Mourning Doves, Downy & Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, House Finches, House Sparrows, Blue Jays. Our first Killdeer showed up in a farm field along Greenville Rd near Peter Collins Rd, with a few Horned Larks. From the parking area at the south end of the new reservoir, the water was still about 80% iced over, but held 2 Horned Grebes, 2 Great Blue Herons, 5 male Mallards, 1 male Green-winged Teal, 2 Lesser Scaup, 3 Ring-necked Ducks and 20-25 Canada Geese. A couple Crows flew over. At Camp Clay west of town on Liberty-Union Rd were 20 more Canada Geese, a couple Mallards, several Robins, Jays, W-b Nuthatches, Starlings, Cardinals. After the skies cleared and the sun was out about 5:30 pm I went back to the reservoir to find 2 Horned Grebes, 5 R-n ducks (4 males), 6 Herring Gulls and 160+ Ring-billed Gulls. Fishing was obviously good as the gulls were fighting and picking over many fish carcasses they had pulled up on the ice in various parts of both reservoirs. The new reservoir and wetland area should greatly improve our spring observations, even in this first year when things are still kind of messy from construction. The boat ramp and fishing pier railings are in now, but some construction is still going on. Jean & John Perchalski Van Wert, 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]