Encouraged by Matt Valencic's report from yesterday (3/24), I cruised Valley Road alongside LaDue Reservoir. Pretty good assortment: 40+ ring-necked ducks in a raft; other diving ducks came in eights: 8 scaup, 8 canvasback and 8 redhead. All three mergansers were present with about 6 red-breasted, 3 pair of common and 7 hooded. Prize duck was a lone male white-winged scoter. 19 tundra swans were on the ice on the near the dam at the north end of the reservoir left from Matt's 85 yesterday. 2 immature bald eagles, some crows, several herring gulls and lots of ring-billed gulls were on the ice too. Food seems to be abundant in the form of dead gizzard shad. Watched a horned grebe (one of at least 11 scattered around the reservoir) struggle to upend and swallow a six inch shad to no avail - too wide for its gape. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]