Monday I spent an amazing weather day at and around The Wilds (Muskingum County) looking for birds. Temps warmed a little bit but the wind was minimal and the sky was as blue as can be this time of year. I had some excellent birding as well but was unsuccessful locating any Golden eagles on this trip. Admittedly I haven't sought them there as much as I used to, I figure I will see what I will see if I bird there enough. Three winters ago - I had excellent luck with this species, I could basically drive through International Road, give a look out from Jeffrey Point or somewhere alone Zion Ridge road - I would have luck. That is not the case this year. This species has been elusive for me this winter with having had it only once out of about 7 or 8 trips so far this season. Luckily, that was on the CBC - so that's good. Most notable is that I paid a visit the week before this and did not see one duck or goose - waters were not frozen. Of course - there had to be some waterfowl on the interior of the Wilds, but it was peculiar that there were none to be found anywhere that was accessible to me. Zero. During this visit I had decent diversity and numbers of waterfowl. Areas travelled were Zion Ridge Road, International Road, Prouty Roud, Dye Cemetery Road, Rural Dale Road and Coal Hill / Haul Roads area (Knox Cemetery area) - and a couple connector routes in between. Here is a species list: Northern shrike - 1 flew in front of my truck at the "intersection" of Rural Dale Road and Sky Drive Rd (TWP Hwy#51), landed briefly in a shrub and was not seen again despite some looking around. Canada goose - 16 Ring-necked duck - 46 Redhead - 13 Bufflehead - 4 Green-winged teal - 2 Gadwall - 34 Hooded merganser - 6 Mallard - 4 Rough-legged hawk - 4, including one really dark morph Kestrel - 6 Harrier - 5 Red-shouldered hawk - 1 Red-tailed hawk - 14 Turkey vulture - 5 Killdeer - 1 Blue jay - 1 Crow - 8 E. Meadowlark - 1 Horned Lark - 3 American Tree sparrow - 7 Carolina Chickadee - 1 Goldfinch - 5 E. Bluebird - 5 Rock Pigeon - 9 N. Mockingbird - 1 Glen Crippen Burr Oak Lake ______________________________________________________________________ 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]