Jim McCormac and I birded the Ashtabula Lakefront this afternoon in hopes of some storm related birds. There was some great birding, but on real oddities. We started at Geneva State Park. The marina is often a good place for waterfowl and gulls trying to escape the rough lake. Today it was real quiet with no waterfowl and only a few gulls. At Walnut Beach in Ashtabula County a lot of gulls on the beach, but nothing out of the ordinary. We did have a few fly-by white-winged scoters. At lakeshore Park there was a very cooperative female long-tailed duck. In the harbor area and all there were cormorants, scaup and bufflehead, but nothing else out of the ordinary. Conneaut was good. As Bob Lane stated earlier it is now gated so you have to walk out. We walked out and watched from under the observation deck. It was good for a shelter from the rain. There were 63 brant when we started and they were joined by 8 more birds for a total of 71 birds. While we were watched Jim spotted a red phalarope land just east of us. We were able to watch it for 5 minutes before it flew off. We also had about 15 dunlin and 2 sanderlings. There were the four common gulls, but nothing out of the ordinary. Compared with yesterday when there were lots of Bonaparte's gull everywhere, today we saw only small numbers everywhere. We also had a fly over common redpoll. There were also 2 snow buntings. On the way back we decided to stop at Fairport Harbor. There we had about 50 brant on the beach at Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park. They were extremely cooperative allowing some great looks. They were close enough that we were able to hear them calling. We had all three scoters out in the harbor. By then it got too dark and we had to finally give up. It was great day with a lot of good birds. The brant are fantastic right now and worth checking out. John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]