A mid-afternoon survey of Hoover Reservoir (Columbus) turned up the previously-reported pelicans and modest numbers of shorebirds. The pelicans were visible from the boardwalk: at the last left turn going out the boardwalk, look south over the spit of land with the Osprey platform. The tightly-bunched pelicans were sailing back and forth behind the spit, sometimes disappearing from view behind the vegetation. This view is distant but it's pretty hard to mis-identify pelicans. The pelicans also can be seen by walking to the edge of the mud flats from the abandoned road that starts at the gate to the Yacht Club. This view was much closer but problematic: the birds were behind a spit of land so that I can see only their heads. Again, pelican heads are pretty distinctive, but the view actually was better from the boardwalk. Mudflats are developing nicely near the boardwalk, but will be much better if the water drops even a few more inches. (All right, you birders in northern Columbus -- go turn on your lawn sprinklers!) Meanwhile, there is a decent mudflat at the very end of the boardwalk. Birds were kind of sparse there, but the view were fabulous -- looking almost straight down at a few birds and very close range for others. Even better habitat is appearing in the extensive flats west of the Yacht Club road mentioned above. Unfortunately, the shore that was attracting the birds was that across an inlet from this area. And the ground on the newly exposed flats in this area is way too soggy to permit walking well out toward the water. So all views were fairly distant; nonetheless, some nice birds were identifiable, especially a lone American Golden-plover. A bird with seemingly long primary projections was there, too, but it was just too far away to get any detail. Here's my list: American White Pelican Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Canada Goose Mallard Turkey Vulture American Golden-plover Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Short-billed Dowitcher Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Ring-billed Gull Caspian Tern Mourning Dove Downy Woodpecker American Robin Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse American Crow -- Bill Heck ______________________________________________________________________ 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]