Today Rick Oxley, Richard Oxley and I took advantage of the great weather for December 30th and headed north to do some birding. Our initial objective was to find some owls, but the overwhelming presence of “Hunter’s Orange” led to a change of agenda. We did though have an enjoyable day both in our company and the birds we located. Our first stop was at Wyandot C-112 where there were numerous Horned Larks and a few Lapland Longspurs and American Pipits. From there we went to C-29 to see what was present at the flood plain. We weren’t disappointed as along with the many Canada Geese and Mallards we found 9 Greater White-fronted Geese and a few Northern Pintails. In the tree line at the edge of the road near the farmhouse we found a Red-headed Woodpecker. We then headed south to the Upper Sandusky Reservoir. As we entered the reservoir we were greeted by a gorgeous Red-shouldered Hawk in the trees along the fence. In the stand of dead trees in the water were 2 adult Bald Eagles. We scanned the water looking for Cackling Geese but only located Canada Geese and Mallards at first, and then we found a Hooded Merganser and a Bufflehead near the middle of the reservoir. We next headed south to Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area where we located a nice mixture of species. Included were 2 Greater White-fronted Geese, hundreds of Canada Geese, 9 Trumpeter Swans, 61 Tundra Swans, 13 Gadwall, 20+ American Black Ducks, hundreds of Mallards, 18 Northern Shovelers, 23 Northern Pintail, 1 Green-winged Teal, 8 Common Goldeneye, 10 Bald Eagles, 8 Northern harriers, 1 Cooper’s Hawk, several Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrel, a Wild Turkey that played chicken with Rick’s vehicle, and various usual common birds. Our last stop was at Big Island Wildlife Area where we found a few Great Blue Herons, the first for the day, 2 Trumpeter Swans, 6 Green-winged Teal, 7 more Bald Eagles (total for the day was 17), 9 Northern Harriers, a Ring-necked Pheasant, Horned Larks, American Tree Sparrows, 2 Swamp Sparrows and several other common species. Our total for the trip was 44 species and lots of good company. Charlie Bombaci **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]