Larry Gara and I lept out to Harveysburg Road overlooking Caesar Creek Lake to have a go at the Pacific Loon reported this morning by Rick Asamoto. We were joined in short order by Bob and Julie Foppe, Rick himself, John Habig and Shane Eggleston, then Dan Sanders and several others. Pretty soon we had a number of stellar birders equipped with absolutely superb optics scanning the lake for the loon. Alas, it was not to be. We had four or five Common Loons in a variety of plumages and five Double-crested Cormorants in both juvenile and adult plumages, but no Pacific Loon. The day was not a total loss, however. Bob Foppe found a Laughing Gull in definitive alternate plumage. Almost everybody had a look at it and we all agreed on the large bill and the uniformly dark upper wing, lacking the white bases on the primaries which distinguish the Franklin's Gull. Not a bad consolation prize. Cheers, Bob PS: Just had a phone call from a usually reliable source reporting a Bobolink out on Starbuck Road north of Wilmington. More news when it breaks. -- Robert D Powell Congress Farm Research Institute Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] http://rdp1710.wordpress.com Nulla dies sine aves ______________________________________________________________________ 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]