The steady drizzle this afternoon had little effect on the shorebirds at the Big Walnut Delta at the north end of Hoover Reservoir. The celebrated Ruff was still there between 3:15 - 4:45, hanging out along the western fringe of the mudflat, adjacent to the boardwalk. It would've been a great look from the boardwalk (sigh), but was still easily visible from the old roadbed of Area N if you had a scope. At one point an Eagle flushed up all the shorebirds, gulls, and egrets, but within 5 minutes, the Ruff was back in his favored area. Other birds in the bay included 50+ Kildeer 25+ Lesser Yellowlegs 2 Solitary Sandpipers 1 Pectoral Sandpiper 1 Stilt Sandpiper 45 Ring-billed Gulls 11 Great Egrets 8 Great Blue Herons 75 cormorants 20 Mallards 6 Green-winged Teal 2 Blue-winged Teal 1 N.Shoveler 1 Bald Eagle (juvenile) 1 Osprey On the subject of the Boardwalk, it may look largely intact, but all you need to do is view the braces under the deck, especially from the parking area, to realize that this is a seriously damaged structure. Sadly, it may not re-open for a long time, and I suspect that it will look a lot different when it does. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]