Hi all, Spent a chunk of the day up at Big Island Wildlife Area (for info: http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=7). Plenty of waterfowl about; I'll give a roster of those at the end. There were plenty of other signs of spring migration, with lots of singing Eastern Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds teed up everywhere, Killdeer galore, some flyover American Pipits and Lapland Longspurs, and a few Tree Swallows. A treat was hearing the sweet lilting whistled songs of American Tree Sparrows. Several Northern Harriers were still present, as were two Rough-legged Hawks. It was warm enough that at least four species of frogs were out, painted turtles were basking, and I saw my first Eastern garter snakes of the year. On to the fowl. The following were found at various nooks and crannies, all within or very near the wildlife area. I walked about two miles around the dikes, and got a bunch of stuff in the back that wouldn't be readily visible from the roads. A great spot is the flooded field just north of State Route 95 and just east of State Route 203. Several hundred birds in that former prairie slough, but a cautionary note: the only good viewing is off 95, and one must be very cautious about that. There's few wide spots to get safely off the roadway, and although traffic is not especially heavy, they do zip through there at a good clip. Snow Goose - 1 (blue morph) Canada Goose - hundreds Trumpeter Swan - 2 Tundra Swan - 8 Wood Duck - 12 Gadwall - 70 American Wigeon - 110 American Black Duck - 55 Mallard - 600 +- Blue-winged Teal - 4 Northern Shoveler - 130 Northern Pintail - 180 - 200 Green-winged Teal - 250 - 300 Redhead - 20 Ring-necked Duck - 120 - 130 Lesser Scaup - 35 Bufflehead - 2 Hooded Merganser - 40 Ruddy Duck - 2 Whoever does this area for the Breeding Bird Atlas should be on the alert for our more uncommon nesting species of waterfowl, if they've not already been documented thus far at Big Island. The wetlands really look great, and some of these ducks - possibilities including Green-winged Teal, maybe Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Black Duck, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Redhead, Ruddy Duck - should stay and attempt nesting. Should be no problem confirming nesting Hooded Mergansers in the Wood Duck boxes behind the three large diked wetlands on the south side of the area. Jim Jim McCormac Columbus, Ohio Like nature? Visit my blog: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/ Like birds? Join the Ohio Ornithological Society: http://www.ohiobirds.org ______________________________________________________________________ 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]