Yesterday I joined the Amos W. Butler Audubon group from Indianapolis
on a field trip to Brookville Lake.  We met at 9:00 am at Whitewater
State Park and finished up at Dunlapsville Causeway at 4:30 pm.  I
had done a little scouting in the two hours before the group
rendezvous.  Lots of diving ducks and noteworthy signs of spring.
Highlights:

Pied-billed Grebe 4
Great Blue Heron 1
Black Vulture 16
Turkey Vulture 15 (many drifting north)
Canada Goose 110
Gadwall 3
American Wigeon 11 (flock of 7 seen early in morning at Fairfield Causeway)
American Black Duck 45
Mallard 350
Mallard X Am. Black Duck hybrid 1
Northern Pintail 19
Canvasback 70
Redhead 620
Ring-necked Dcuk 425
Lesser Scaup 280
Aythya (sp) 400 (distant flock observed from dam overlook)
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER 1 (female, viewed from lake shore north of Egypt
Hollow ramp)
Bufflehead 26
Common Goldeneye 165
Hooded Merganser 16
Common Merganser 4
Red-breasted Merganser 7
Bald Eagle 5 (all immatures, 4 with 20' of each other on island off
Buck Point Golf Course)
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 (Mounds State Recreation Area)
Red-tailed Hawk 14 (most as pairs, often circling together)
American Coot 300
Sandhill Crane 19 (on mud flats off Dunlapsville Causeway in late afternoon)
Killdeer 14 (most in pairs giving flight call displays near nesting sites)
GREATER YELLOWLEGS 1 (on mud flats at Dunlapsville, previous earliest
Whitewater Valley record of which I'm aware was 17 March)
Ring-billed Gull 1750 (approx. 1400 left the lake moving N at 7:40am;
many commute up to Richmond for day, some may have been migrants)
Herring Gull 3
Mourning Dove 40 (dispersed widely as single calling males, pairs)
Red-headed Woodpecker 1 (northern Union Co., observed on Mitchell
Road on my way home)
Blue Jay 1 (heard early morning, my first BLJA in a month or more)
Red-winged Blackbird 400+ (some in flocks, also scattered males
displaying along fence lines, etc.)
Eastern Meadowlark 7 (widespread, not heard singing)
Common Grackle 115

Further note:

25 February 2005, Brookville Lake, Hannah Creek Ramp
American Pipit 2 (flyovers)

Bill Buskirk
Biology Department
Earlham College
Richmond, IN 47374