Larry Gara and I went out to the Caesar Creek beach this morning to check on the California Gull reported yesterday. Hardy Eschbaugh and Jim Bishop were already there. We carefully scoped out the gulls with superb optics and found only ring-bills, herrings and Bonaparte's. Larry and I moved on to the observation platform at the Visitors Center and relocated the female Surf Scoter mentioned in the same report. It was foraging between the control structure and the dam in company with a Common Merganser. Through the scope it appeared to be a first winter female beginning to molt into first spring plumage. eBird contains 42 previous records of this species. We are grateful for this report, but would urge members of this list to include more detail in reports of rare species, especially birds on the Ohio Bird Records Committee's list of review species. Cheers, Bob -- 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]