Today Jim Fry and I outdid the USPS and let neither rain, gale strength winds, tsunami sized waves or who pulled the plug on the wetlands keep us from having a decent day of birding. The weather was ugly. The rain was minimal. The wind reminded me of experiencing hurricanes when I lived in New England, the gusts at times almost pushing us backwards. At one location at Hoover Reservoir we were standing on an old bridge when two rouge waves crashed against it and sprayed us pretty good. Then when we got to Area A of the Delaware Wildlife Area the water that was there Thursday was missing. This was not an act of nature but rather man-induced. Possibly ODNR lowered the water level to attract shorebirds. We found a silver lining though as the large puddles held decent numbers of Green-winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, Greater Yellowlegs and a huge flock of Pectoral Sandpipers (estimate about 100+). Species of interest by location included: Westerville Great Horned Owl (1 adult & 3 owlets) Hogback Road Osprey (2) Delaware Wildlife Area/A Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Gadwall (4) American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal (60-75) Northern Shoveler (40-50) Green-winged Teal (100+) Lesser Scaup (35) Bufflehead (12) Hooded Merganser (3) Ruddy Duck (30+) Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel American Coot Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs (20-25) Pectoral Sandpiper (100+) Ring-billed Gull Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher Northern Flicker Blue Jay American Crow Horned Lark Tree Swallow Carolina Wren Eastern Bluebird American Robin European Starling Eastern Towhee Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle American Goldfinch Hoover Meadows Black Vulture (1) Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Mallard Bald Eagle (1 adult) Mourning Dove Red-headed Woodpecker Northern Flicker Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Eastern Bluebird American Robin Northern Mockingbird European Starling Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird American Goldfinch Old Sunbury Road Double-crested Cormorant (30) Canada Goose Mallard Ring-billed Gull Tree Swallow Area M Boardwalk Osprey (2) Oxbow Road Double-crested Cormorant Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Lesser Scaup (50) Bufflehead (8) Hooded Merganser (2) Red-breasted Merganser (2) Ruddy Duck (100+) Bonaparte’s Gull Ring-billed Gull Tree Swallow American Robin European Starling Northern Cardinal Charlie Bombaci Jim Fry ______________________________________________________________________ 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]