The lake was really ripping today so I decided to watch the lake. All in all an interesting day, however, in the past I knew days like this could have limited movement. It seems like it gets too windy and a lot of the birds find sheltered spots and this seemed like that kind of a day. I started out at Stanton Park, a small township park in Madison only ¼ mile from my house. I birded there from 7:00-8:30. There were decent numbers of red-breasted mergansers with an estimate of about 800 seen. The only other waterfowl was a young male HARLEQUIN DUCK that passed by close to shore heading west. There were very few gulls and no loons or grebes. My next stop was at Geneva State Park. Again a few mergansers passing by and few gulls, even in the sheltered marina. The marina had a mute swan and a few mallards. Ashtabula Harbor was my next stop. At Walnut beach the waves were crashing the breakwall, making it hard to see anything. Again a few mergs and no gulls. At Lakeshore park there were several hundred red-breasted mergansers in the harbor, 2 horned grebes, a common loon, and mallards and Canada geese. There were a few gulls passing by out by the breakwall. Of note was an immature BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE. It quickly disappeared behind the outer breakwall and was not seen again. Conneaut Harbor was pretty wild. This is where all the gulls were. There were a couple thousand Bonaparte’s gulls flying and feeding in the eastern half of the harbor. I was able to pick out an adult BLACK-HEADED GULL. I was able to see it pass by once and when it turned to head back I lost it. I was able to relocate it again about 45 minutes later. It was difficult to relocate, but when you did you were able to follow it easily until it would fly back to the start of the flock. I also saw an adult and an immature FRANKLIN’S GULL in the mess. There were a lot of herring gulls in the marina but no black-backed gulls. All the great and lesser black-backed gulls were on the sand spit. Most of the waterfowl passing through were red-breasted mergansers and a few common mergansers. I did see some hooded mergs at the south end of the harbor and one group of redheads. Also, 1 horned grebe and 1 common loon. On my way back home I stopped back at lakeshore park and most of the mergansers had dispersed. There were a few gulls, but no kittiwake. I did see a RED-THROATED LOON out by the breakwall. It was an interesting day. Most of the gull activity was at Conneaut Harbor. Ashtabula and Geneva were pretty slow for gulls. Most of the waterfowl on the open lake were red-breasted mergansers. No swallows were seen. When I got home, I had about a dozen pine siskins and a single COMMON REDPOLL at my feeder. Also a couple red-breasted nuthatches. John Pogacnik ______________________________________________________________________ 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]