I visited the Guilford Lake area today from 11AM to 2PM. The weather was rainy and 45 degrees; this did not dampen the birding. I was able to record 69 species! Here is a list of the highlights and first of the year (FOY) sightings: Wood Duck 20+ Gadwall 4 pair American Wigeon 2 pair Blue-winged Teal 1 pair Green-winged Teal 1 pair Canvasback 1 pair Ring-necked Duck 3 pair Lesser Scaup 40+ pairs Bufflehead 30+ pairs Ruddy Duck 220+ (1 big raft) Common Loon 34 (All in one raft) Double-crested Cormorant 22+ (FOY) Great Blue Heron See notes below Bonaparte's Gull 8+ Herring Gull 30+ Purple Martin 6 (FOY) Tree Swallow 120+ Sitting on the wires Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2 (FOY) Barn Swallow 35+ (FOY) also on wires Brown Thrasher 2 (FOY) courting Pine Siskin 3 still around! Note: The single Great Blue Heron nest at Guilford Lake, Firestone Bay, is again active; this is at least the fifth year. In the past, the nest has produced at least four young each year! This is proof that Great Blue Herons do not always nest in a rookery with others!!! Note: The Heron rookery on Beaver Creek at Elkton has 45+ active nests in the Sycamore grove. Bob Lane _________________________________________________________________ Rediscover HotmailŪ: Get e-mail storage that grows with you. http://windowslive.com/RediscoverHotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Rediscover_Storage1_042009 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]