The Ohio River was rocking this morning with some sweet waterfowl action. Most of the birds were just south of Pike Island Lock and Dam located on the Jefferson/Belmont County line. Pike Island Dam is in the town of Yorkville. Above the dam is often good for waterfowl, but the river was 80-90% frozen for several hundred yards. The below dam area is the place to find ducks right now. This area hosted the following: Canvasback Redhead Common Goldeneye - 30+ Lesser Scaup - 30+ Greater Scaup Common Merganser - female Bufflehead LONG-TAILED DUCK - 1 WHITE-WINGED SCOTER - 17! North of Yorkville are the quaint Ohio Valley towns of Tiltonsville and Rayland. There are few opportunities to view the river from Tiltonsville. Rayland, however, is home to the Rayland Marina which lies at the mouth of Short Creek. The marina is on the north side of Short Creek and a golf course runs along the south. This confluence of creek, river, and golf course is a Canada Goose heaven. It was here in November of 2012 that Scott Pendleton, George Benish, and I found a Brant mixed in among the Canada's. Today this area was bathed in sunlight and through the steam the following species were seen: Mallard American Black Duck Ring-necked Duck Canvasback Common Goldeneye Lesser Scaup Common Merganser - males Bufflehead And of course...Canada Geese Turning right out of the marina takes you on "Old Route 7" which runs along the river for several miles until it turns up a narrow "holler" and then up a steep hill (on this hill, by the way, was the childhood home of Bill Mazeroski who hit the World Series winning home run for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.) Old Route 7 is a quiet road with little traffic. Nearly every spot that I stopped held waterfowl including a pair of Hooded Mergansers and the 18th White-winged Scoter of the morning. Another piece of history along this road...this time of the avian variety...is the Osprey nest on the large powerline tower that holds the lines which cross the river. This nest has been active almost every year since the mid 1990's. It has to be one of the earliest known nesting sites for Ospreys in our state. The Ohio River hasn't been this active with waterfowl since the winter of 1993/94. When the inland waters freeze, the river comes alive. If you're an Ohio Valley birder, now is the time to enjoy waterfowl along the river. It's been 20 years since it was this good. I didn't have a scope this morning, so all of these birds were easily seen with binoculars (although it's always good to have a scope.) The birds are all on the Ohio side and undoubtedly using the actual bank of the river for feeding and sleeping. Ohio doesn't own very far out into the river, so most of the waterfowl in the river is technically in WV. But much of what I saw today was mere feet from our bank, which made for point blank binocular views. Scott Albaugh ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]