This afternoon I made a few stops at the northern basin of Hoover Reservoir (northeast of Columbus).  With the extremely low water levels, much of this basin is mudflat or very shallow water.  I stopped at the boardwalk at the northern end and saw almost no water birds amidst the miles of drying mudflat.  Only after I stopped at Area I and walked out its stream channel to the basin did I see waterbirds.  Lots of waterbirds!  The list included:

Canada Goose - 175
Hooded Merganser - 200
Lesser Scaup - 4
Redhead - 4
Pied-billed Grebe - 1
cormorant - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 200
Bonaparte's Gull - 120
Kildeer - 10
Dunlin - 3

The birds were scattered across miles of shallows, so that it looked like Chesapeake Bay or the Gulf Coast, except for the lack of herons.  As a bonus, I could also see several large kettle of vultures returning to roost east of the Sunbury causeway, totaling 140 Turkey Vultures and 7 Black Vultures.

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