I stopped at several areas around these 2 lakes north of Columbus yesterday and today, getting fairly good coverage of the southern portion of Alum and the northern portion of Hoover. d) except for a huge raft of gulls near the dam. Hoover had more birds, but fisher-boats were scaring them around different portions of the reservoir. Notables included: Swans - all Alum, with a Mute off Cheshire launch and 2 Tundra in the middle of the south end Ducks - nothing else at Alum, but Hoover had flocks of dabblers (250+), mostly Mallard, but with a few Blacks & Pintails mixed in. Hooded Mergansers were surprisingly scarce, with only a few at Hoover. Other waterfowl - Horned Grebes were at both reservoirs, though in small #s Turkey Vulture - 1 bird was soaring over Duncan Glen on Hoover, possibly the same bird found on the CBC Gulls - a flock of 800 birds, mostly Ring-bills, was off the dam at Alum; it included 18 Herring, but nothing else. Hoover had a flock of 140 Ring-bills in the north end, along with 30+ Bonapartes Robins - small flocks were in many locations, despite diminished berry crops Hermit Thrush - 1 was feeding in the grape thickets at New Galena on Alum Creek lake Cedar Waxwings - 4 were at SummerRidge access on Alum Lake Golden-cr.Kinglets - had 1-2 at several spots where they were not in December, implying a small movement Yellow-rumped Warblers - surprisingly widespread, with 2-3 at many sites. Mudhen Marsh had 7. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]