Alex Hughes and I spent the afternoon birding at Griggs Dam in Columbus before heading north to Big Island in search of raptors. Among the highlights: Griggs Dam: The stretch of river from the dam to about half a mile downriver was very productive for water birds. In this stretch, we had good looks at: Common Merganser (1) Hooded Merganser (4) Bufflehead (2) Ring-necked Duck (7) American Black Duck (10) Mallards and Canada Geese (Many) Pied-billed Grebe (2) Great Blue Heron (5) Belted Kingfisher (1) We then headed north to Big Island, where we took in the Short-eared Owl/Harrier show. An additional surprise at Big Island was a Merlin perched in a tree on the south side of OH-95 about a mile west of the observation platform. We had time to pull over briefly to confirm the ID before traffic forced us to move along. Good birding, Alex Champagne OSU Ornithology Club ______________________________________________________________________ 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]