Today was fantastic. It could have been better had the snow not obscured viewing occasionally. The cold temperatures must have really stirred up the waterfowl as I had great numbers and variety. A lot were sitting on the lake. It seems like a lot of birds may have vacated inland sites as I had ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks, and American coot. Birds I rarely get sitting on the lake here. There were some good ducks with the best being harlequin duck (a young male), surf and black scoter and 6 long-tailed ducks that passed by in a group. I had three red-throated loons fly by while only one common loon passed by. Gull numbers were good. There were not many Bonaparte's. An Iceland gull was new for the season. Lakeshore Waterbird Survey Lakeshore Reservation, North Perry December 11, 2009, 7:30-11:00 Weather- cloudy with snow, Winds- NW 25-35, Temp- 23-24 F, Barometer- 30.16-30.27, Humidity-71-80, Dew point- 15-19 Waves- 12-14 feet, Flight direction- west Gadwall 2 American black duck 6 Mallard 34 Northern pintail 1 Canvasback 158 Redhead 3 Ring-necked duck 2 Greater scaup 323 Lesser scaup 970 Scaup spp. 1,550 HARLEQUIN DUCK 1 SURF SCOTER 8 BLACK SCOTER 2 LONG-TAILED DUCK 6 Bufflehead 658 Common goldeneye 66 Hooded merganser 32 Common merganser 64 Red-breasted merganser 4,323 Ruddy duck 46 RED-THROATED LOON 3 Common loon 1 American coot 1 Bonaparte's gull 31 Ring-billed gull 3,111 Herring gull 327 KUMLIEN'S GULL 1 (1st/2nd cycle) Great black-backed gull 17 John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 (440) 259-2751 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]