Hi all, I had an interesting conversation with Scott Hale, who is fish administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. Scott informed me that there was an abnormally late hatch of gizzard shad throughout Ohio last year, and that the fish were exceptionally plentiful. Because of this, when winter hit, the fish were smaller than normal and less able to cope with tough winter conditions. This winter has been a rough one, and conditions for semi-hardy shad in the reservoirs have not been hospitable, especially with all of the prolonged ice cover. Because of this, there have been enormous die-offs of last year's shad class, thus creating a bonanza of food for fish-loving gulls. Shad are abundant in many if not most of the large reservoirs throughout Ohio, and these die-offs were widespread. This is probably the case in other surrounding states as well. So, it seems likely that an abundant source of easily obtained food, and one that isn't available most winters, has been the driver luring the masses of gulls to inland reservoirs. The ice cover/cold water temperature/shad die-off phenomena is a regular winter occurrence along Lake Erie, and is why places like East 72nd Street at the power plant are so good when the lake ices over. But we don't often see this at inland lakes, at least to the degree that it happened this winter. This situation also speaks to the amazing ability of highly mobile and opportunistic birds to quickly recognize a new food source, and capitalize on it. Jim McCormac Jim McCormac Ohio Division of Wildlife 2045 Morse Rd., G-3 Columbus, Ohio 43229 614-265-6440 614-262-1143 fax ______________________________________________________________________ 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]