The biggest surprise today were the number of northern pintails. I counted 227 birds in a total of 18 flocks. The largest flock was 27 birds. Only one flock was not pure pintails and that flock contained only a single mallard. Other than the single mallard, there were no other dabbling ducks. There were quite a few scaup and goldeneyes, but only 6 red-breasted mergansers. Also of note was a single immature male harlequin duck. It flew by at very close range amongst a lesser scaup flock. A single pomarine jaeger also passed by. It was heading west and was having a hard time going into wind. there were modest numbers of gulls with the only birds of note being 2 lesser black-backed gulls that were flying together. Lakeshore Waterbird Survey Lakeshore Reservation, North Perry December 28, 2008, 745-1015 Weather- cloudy Winds- W 35-45 increasing to W 40-50+, Temp- 46-39 F, Barometer- 29.73-29.94, Humidity-76-73, Dew point- 39-31 Waves- 14-16 feet, Flight direction- west Mallard 1 Northern pintail 227 Greater scaup 11 Lesser scaup 61 HARLEQUIN DUCK 1 immature male Common goldeneye 35 Red-breasted merganser 6 Bonaparte's gull 212 Ring-billed gull 341 Herring gull 123 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL 2 3rd cycle Great black-backed gull 7 POMARINE JAEGER 1 John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 (440) 259-2751 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]