There was an adult male Merlin perched in the trees near the boat ramp at the North Pool. From Harveysburg Rd I first saw what I suspected to be a female Black Scoter with its head tucked among 5 Gadwall. I could see a darker cap and the top of the light cheek and could see it was just a bit smaller than the Gadwall. After about 20 minutes it finally started moving about with its head up, which allowed me to confirm the ID, and joined a small raft of mostly scaup. In addition to the scoter, the water had Pied-billed Grebe 3 Horned Grebe 39 Common Loon 32 Mallard 12 N. Shoveler 17 A. Wigeon 2 Gadwall 8 Ring-necked Duck 6 L. Scaup 10 G. Scaup 4 scaup 20 Bufflehead 15 Rick Asamoto Miamisburg ______________________________________________________________________ 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]