Dan Sanders, Ben Warner, Bill Whan and I made a foray northward yesterday. We arrived at the Harris's sparrow location in Holmes County about 8 AM to find a birdless yard. Two young Amish birders immediately came out to greet us and talk about their bird. Within five minutes a small flock of white-crowned sparrows flew in from behind the house accompanied by the Harris's sparrow. Everyone got great looks. We spent some time chatting with the young birders, then pushed north to the lake. At Sims Park, Euclid, OH, we failed to find the king eider. We did have all three scoters and both scaup. Common goldeneye remain abundant. As we were leaving Jay Lehman arrived and reported a glaucous gull and a possible Thayer's gull at Eastlake, so we went there. Conditions were starting to deteriorate by the time we arrived, with a strong west wind and the beginnings of snow. We located a first-year glaucous gull and at least three lesser black-backed gulls but could not find a Thayer's. The gulls were mostly resting on the distant jetty, and ironically, heat distortion from the relatively warmer waters of the lake made careful scrutiny impossible. Dan spotted a peregrine falcon perched on a strobe light near the nest box on the power plant stack. At East 72nd Street, there were countless gulls, but almost all were ring-bills with some herring gulls and greater black-backed among them. We did not spend much time trying to sort the flock carefully. At Lorain we failed to find the harlequin ducks amid the very minimal conditions for viewing allowed by high winds and blowing snow. There was a sizable concentration of gulls along the only open water of the marina, which was located at the maximal distance from the parking area. We decided not to make the hike to examine them. We turned south and visited Wellington Reservoir, which had little ice. There were about 3000 Canada geese resting along the far shore and more arrived continually. We could spot no rarities among them other than a feral barnyard goose. There were about 300 American coots and sizable numbers of ring-necked ducks, along with smaller numbers of redheads, canvasbacks, and buffleheads. Our notable misses were the Sims Park king eider, the Lorain harlequin ducks, and Bonaparte's gulls, of which we saw none. Highlights include: Holmes County Harris's sparrow Eastlake Peregrine falcon Lesser black-backed gull Glaucous gull Sims Park Greater scaup Lesser scaup Surf scoter White-winged scoter Black scoter Common goldeneye Common merganser Red-breasted merganser East 72nd Street Ring-billed gull Herring gull Great black-backed gull Wellington Reservoir Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked duck Bufflehead Information of the locations can be found at The OOS website: www.ohiobirds.org The Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society website: http://www.wcasohio.org/birding_hotspots.htm Cheers, Paul Gardner Columbus, OH ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]