Ottawa NWR Benton Carroll Road Property - In the rain today the birds were very active this morning around 8:00 AM. Ottawa's Benton Carroll Road property was full of birds again! Color was poor because of the gray sky, but there were plenty of Mallards, American Wigeon, a few A. Black Ducks, N. Pintail, N. Shoveler, Green-winged & Blue-winged Teal, and one pair of Wood Ducks. Rusty Blackbirds were calling all-over and many were close to the road feeding along the waters edge. Again, there was over 45 Wilson's Snipe, Bonaparte's Gulls, and Greater Yellowlegs feeding aggressively in and around the water. I can't remember seeing so many Greater Yellowlegs in one spot before! Many were actively feeding and flying around and calling. The sound was awesome in the rain. They're a few Lesser Yellowlegs and Killdeer too. Magee Marsh Causeway - Swamp and Song Sparrows were singing all-over the marsh! The Trumpeter Swans were feeding so much that I only saw their heads a few times. The ducks were also here as I enjoyed lots of Gadwall, a few Green-winged Teal, Wood Ducks, N. Shoveler, and one each of Pied-billed and Horned Grebe. The American Coots are now in great numbers. I only saw one male Bufflehead this morning. D.C. Cormorants and Tree Swallows were around in increasing numbers as were several Wilson's Snipe along the water edge. At the end of the causeway around the bend to the first Cottonwood tree on the left was a Northern Mockingbird on the road! Not a shrike! My first at Magee in a very long time. I think the shrike's maybe gone people! The pond at the famous Magee Marsh boardwalk - Had a lot of ducks early in the AM. Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, American Wigeon were in good numbers plus four Wood Ducks flew by and landed at the far western edge of the pond where its hard to see them. Northern Flickers and Red-winged Blackbirds were everywhere and calling in the rain! The flickers yellow-shafted wing feathers and their white, cottontail-like rumps were easy to see in the dark light. BSBO - Black Swamp Bird Observatory feeders - Had a female Purple Finch around 9 AM. The bold white stripe above her eye was very noticeable in the dark light. The American Goldfinches are really getting yellow; nice! Metzger Marsh - There are American Coots everywhere. Still present in fair numbers are Redhead, Ring-necked Ducks, Gadwall and American Wigeon. We also saw a Pied-billed Grebe up-close, DC Cormorants, a Bald Eagle, a Mute Swan and lots of Tree Swallows. The wooded area of Metzger had my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the year!! Also present was an Eastern Phoebe, Brown Creeper and N. Flicker. Talk to you later birders, <file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CCHRISK%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5C clip_filelist.xml> Christopher J. Knoll Education Director Black Swamp Bird Observatory 13551 West State Route 2 Website: www.bsbobird.org Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449 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]