John Switzer and I headed to Pickerington Ponds Metro Park today in search of the Cackling Geese reported by Brad Sparks a few days ago. No such luck. We arrived at the Wood Duck pond at 9:30 as clouds of geese and ducks took to the sky, spooked intentionally by two hunters who were trying to make them fly to nearby fields so they could shoot them. Ellis Pond had just two Black Ducks on it (not counting the three decoys.), and one Great Blue Heron lurking in the cattails, and things looked pretty bleak. The only things flying were snowflakes, which were increasing in numbers as the morning progressed. Another 50 or so Black Ducks returned to Wood Duck Pond, along with a lot of Mallards and a few Canada Geese. There was also one Pintail there. The Glacier Ridge (?) Pond held many Canada's and Mallards. The feeders and scrubby woods around the Wood Duck parking area had American Tree Sparrows, White-Crowned Sparrows, House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, House Finches, Cardinals, and Blue Jays. No Cackling Geese today. Heather Nagy Licking County ______________________________________________________________________ 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]