Today it rained and sleeted in the early afternoon with heavy winds at time, but John Sawvel and I did manage to see a few new species on the boardwalk. Bird movement has been pretty good the past few days in the area. Certain duck species are getting a little scarcer and shorebirds are starting to come in on Benton Carroll Road. Here is what we saw in a very short time on the boardwalk. Pond by the boardwalk 1. Canada Goose 2. Wood Duck - 8 to 10 flyovers during the storm 3. Ring-necked Duck - several pairs 3. Greater Scaup - 1 pair; nice look at the male's large, blue bill. 4. Lesser Scaup - several pairs 5. Belted Kingfisher - 1; my first one. 6. Tree Swallow - 60 + around 11:20 AM Boardwalk (to the bridge only 1. Bald Eagle - 2 immatures 2. Ring-billed Gull - flyovers 3. Mourning Dove - several now 4. Downy Woodpecker - several 5. Northern Flicker - 2 6. Eastern Phoebe - 2 (+3 more on Ottawa's beach) 7. American Crow - many flyovers 8. Black-capped Chickadee - 1 9. Brown Creeper - at least 3 10. Winter Wren - at least 2; so cute 11. Golden-crowned Kinglet - about 9; males showing their orange 12. Hermit Thrush - 2 near entrance (new for the year) 13. American Robin - several 14. Eastern Towhee - saw 1, heard 2 others 15. A. Tree Sparrow - 3 16. Fox Sparrow - several scratching the ground 17. Song Sparrow - 2 18. Dark-eyed Junco - 2 19. N. Cardinal - 3 20. Red-winged Blackbird - several 21. Rusty Blackbird - several pairs turning leaves at the waters edge 22. C. Grackle - a few 23. Purple Finch - 2 males (new for the year) Later Birding Fans, Christopher J. Knoll Education Director Black Swamp Bird Observatory 13551 West State Route 2 Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449 website:www.bsbobird.org Phone: 419-898-4070 Fax: 419-898-1363 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]