Hi All: The Avid Birders group from Columbus visited Killdeer Plains and Big Island today, and finished with a stop at the Marysville Upground Reservoir. We had about 75 species of birds, and here are the highlights: Killdeer Plains: Northern Saw-whet Owl in the traditional owl grove Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, Short-eared Owl, American Woodcock, and Rusty Blackbirds at the Sportsmen's Center Northern Shrike along C-71, east of TR-108 Tree Swallows gathering nesting material at Pond 33 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS - four rather early birds at the upground reservoir Common loons - 2 at the upground reservoir Sandhill Cranes- 2 at Pond 27 Pectoral Sandpipers: 12 at the wetlands east of TR-108 Lesser Yellowlegs - 3 at Pond 27 Lapland Longspur: 1 near the north end of Washburn road. No uncommon or rare geese or ducks were observed. Raptors were not numerous, and included a handful of Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles, Rough-legged hawks, and Northern Harriers. A brief stop at the Upper Sandusky Reservoir revealed an astounding flock of at around 100 Horned Grebes in various stages of molt-a few were close to full breeding plumage. Big Island: Loads of pintails and other dabblers, but pintails dominated (this was also the case at Killdeer Plains). We kicked up a snipe and had a brief look at an American Bittern flying in the distance. Marysville Upground Reservoir had what I believe was a single White-winged Scoter. I had a good view of the bird when we first arrived, in amongst a large flock of around 200 Lesser Scaup, a few ring-necks and redheads, and some Ruddy Ducks; but the bird dove and we could not relocate it. A side note: we drove by the new Columbus Upground Reservoir site in extreme NW Delaware County. The reservoir is still under construction, but when finished, will be a new, massive body of water, and should turn out to be a new birding hotspot. To get an idea of the size of the reservoir, here's a link to a recent aerial photo: http://www.columbusupgroundreservoirs.com/pdfs/Upground2012.pdf. Good birding, Andy Sewell Columbus, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]