Heartened by all the reports yesterday, I ran a "Tour de Quarries", focusing on the 3 clusters of old rockpits along the Scioto River west & south of Columbus. I started at the Greenlawn dam, then went down to Haul Rd, visiting the ponds both south & north of St. 104, as well as nearby Hart Rd Quarry and the Great Southern Quarry. Then I went south to the quarries around St. 317 and Lockbourne, in Hamilton Township. Finally, I came back northwest to visit Watermark Pond, MarbleCliff, Hidden Lakes, and the Campbell Quarry. Today was not as bird-filled as yesterday. So much open water, so few waterbirds. But I did find some neat things, including Swans - Haul Rd had 4 Mutes, while Hart Rd had 1 Mute and 10 Tundra. One of the 317 quarries had another 10 Tundra Swans. Dabblers - little other than Mallards & Black Ducks, and no great #s of either Divers - 4 Ring-necked Ducks were at Watermark Lake Scoters - 4 subadult Surf Scoters were on the quarry lake behind Great Southern Shopping Center, almost the only birds there Grebes - no Western or even Horned anywhere, but plenty of Pied-billeds, topped by 4 at Watermark Cormorants - widespread, but the only large group was 70 above Greenlawn dam Coots - a flock of 30 have moved onto Watermark Lake; another 10 were at the Hart Rd quarry Great Egrets - still 5 of them were toughing it out in the cold & high water in the bay above the Greenlawn dam Bald Eagle - only 1, an adult at one of the St. 317 Quarries, probably one of the Shadeville nesters Gulls - only Ring-bills. They were common, but not abundant, with no flock greater than 60. Starlings - the only landbird worth reporting, because of huge flocks at Greenlawn Ave and down in Lockbourne. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]