HI everyone, Yesterday (March 31) I went out to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge to attend a spring event of the ONWR Association. I was interested to see some of the recent developments there, and encouraged to see the refuge has acquired some nearby plots which are being saved or restored as wetlands. Thanks for all the good work by staff and ONWRA volunteersŠ Naturally, I took advantage of the trip to do some birding there. The day was gray and cold‹or maybe I¹ve just been spoiled by the eerily warm year so farŠI think the temperature never rose above the low 40s. Here¹s what I saw: Canada Goose Mute Swan‹lots; too many reallyŠ Trumpeter Swan‹a large number, and a lot of flying and vocalizing, really terrific Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon‹realtively few‹most of the rest of the duck species were present in good numbers American Black Duck Mallard Blue-winged teal Northern Shoveler Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead‹few of these‹I only saw two pair Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Bald Eagle‹lots of activity, many adults flying, and one nest with a birds apparently on egg Read-tailed Hawk American Kestrel American Coot Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs‹a couple on Krause Road, then a few in the new refuge property of Benton-Carroll Road Lesser Yellowlegs‹quite a few on the new property Pectoral Sandpiper‹a good-sized group at the same place Wilson¹s Snipe‹2, one of which was obligingly posing not two yards from our bus on Benton-Carroll Road Mourning Dove Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker‹lots of Œem Eastern Phoebe Tree Swallow‹in good numbers over the impoundments American Robin European Starling Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Plus one species I¹m not entirely confident about‹I thought I saw a Horned Grebe in one of the impoundments‹got a brief look, then the bird dived and I never found it againŠ Best wishes, Steve Cagan Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga County -------------------------------------------- Steve Cagan, photographer [log in to unmask] € www.stevecagan.com www.pbase.com/stevecagan € www.stevecagan.blogspot.com 216-932-2753 (USA) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]