This afternoon Linda and I checked areas at the northern end of Hoover Reservoir, all of which were in Delaware County. Areas visited included Oxbow Road & Island, Wiese Road, Dustin Road, Twin Bridges Boat Launch and the Maxtown Boat launch. The birds were scattered from north to south with numerous rafts, some quite large. By far the most numerous were Red-breasted Merganser, but Bufflehead weren't far behind. Not up to par with the White-winged Scoter at Delaware Lake, we observed the first-of-year Tree Swallows. We ran into Rob Thorn at the Maxtown Boat Launch and as Rob and I talked a Red-tailed Hawk was being harassed by crows. Waterfowl observed: Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Canada Goose Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon American Black Duck Mallard Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead (numerous nice rafts - over 150 total individuals) Hooded Merganser Red-breasted Merganser (large numbers everywhere - 500+) Ruddy Duck (many nice rafts - well over 200) Other notable species: Tree Swallow (best site was Maxtown Boat Launch) Hermit Thrush Swamp Sparrow (Oxbow & Wiese Roads) Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve ______________________________________________________________________ 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]