Sandy Tkach and I conducted the March monthly survey on Friday (3/20/2015). This was the 18th year for the March survey. After two months of below average surveys, this one hit the charts! The 18 year average for species was 54 but is now 55 with the 68 species we observed. The 18 year average for number of individuals is 5628 and we had 8767. Two new species were added to the March list bring it to 108 species observed. Those two species were an adult Thayer's Gull and first-year Glaucous Gull. Much of the ice that had surrounded the island on the east. south, and southwest was gone. The NW and north were still frozen as far as we could see. In the early morning there were large ice flows moving along the south side with large numbers of gulls sitting on them. We probably missed some more of the white-winged gulls. But the 155 Great Black-backed Gull was a record number and there were probably more of them as well. There also appeared to be the beginning of a hawk movement as we had a small kettle with Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, and American Kestrel moving north over the middle of the island together. 112 Canada Goose 2 Wood Duck 1 Gadwall 2 American Wigeon 3 American Black Duck 42 Mallard 6 Northern Pintail 1 Canvasback 119 Redhead 1 Ring-necked Duck 204 Greater Scaup 16 Lesser Scaup 122 Bufflehead 2164 Common Goldeneye 3 Hooded Merganser 123 Common Merganser 1115 Red-breasted Merganser 1 Ruddy Duck 900 Duck species? * Wild Turkey 1 Horned Grebe 1 Great Blue Heron * Turkey Vulture 16 Bald Eagle 1 Northern Harrier 2 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 4 Killdeer 1 American Woodcock 14 Ring-billed Gull 1158 Herring Gull 1 Thayer's Gull (adult) 1 Iceland Gull (1st year) 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull (both adults) 1 Glaucous Gull (1st year) 155 Great Black-backed Gull 125 Gull species 4 Mourning Dove 3 Eastern Screech-Owl 3 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 36 Downy Woodpecker 5 Northern Flicker 1 American Kestrel 4 Blue Jay 79 American Crow 79 Black-capped Chickadee 5 White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Brown Creeper 2 Carolina Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Eastern Bluebird 5 Hermit Thrush 126 American Robin 12 European Starling 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 34 American Tree Sparrow 4 Fox Sparrow 24 Song Sparrow 8 White-throated Sparrow 45 Dark-eyed Junco 77 Northern Cardinal 1205 Red-winged Blackbird 28 Rusty Blackbird 391 Common Grackle 51 Brown-headed Cowbird 20 House Finch 2 Purple Finch 1 American Goldfinch 82 House Sparrow 68 species plus two not observed on route 8767 individuals * = species observed on island but not on route Tom -- H. Thomas Bartlett Tiffin, Ohio [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]