Hey Folks - My dad and I made a full day of birding, starting at Avon Lake Powerplant and working our way west to Huron Harbor, Castalia, Resthaven, Sheldon's Marsh, and back home through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We ended the day with a solid 57 species, which is just nice to get during February doldrums. Included in this total, 18 species of waterfowl. Cool. AVON LAKE Highlight was certainly two LITTLE GULLS, many thanks to Ethan K. for posting this sighting earlier today. We arrived around 9 a.m. or so, spent quite a bit of time searching through good numbers of waterfowl, and soon after, locked in on a nice adult Little Gull just off the jetty. Within twenty minutes, my dad picked up on a 1st winter bird, with awesome dark 'm' markings racing across its wings. The juvie and adult hunted in tern-like fashion within 50-100 feet of one another, off the jetty and near the edge of the ice pack. We did not see them enter the hotwaters. A fawn-colored 1st winter GLAUCOUS GULL put in a nice appearance, harassing the bejesus out of any Herring Gull it could keep up with. Gull numbers are NOT thick here, and very surprisingly, Great Black-backed Gulls almost matched Herring Gulls in number...yet, certainly less than 1000 gulls were present altogether. Waterfowl: Red-breasted, Common and Hooded Mergansers, Canvasback, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, American Black Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Mute Swan, Canada Goose. A single HORNED GREBE was in the extreme left (west) portion of open water. HURON HARBOR Frozen over save for one minute patch less than 100 ft in length. Waterfowl mainly bunched up and nestled on the ice in packs, 200+ Canada Geese, 10 Canvasback, 20+ Common Goldeneye, 20+ scaup species. At least 19 TUNDRA SWANS were present here. A sheer spectacle of 8 or 9 BALD EAGLES put on a show here and just west of this location, pumping back and forth across the frozen wasteland. At one point, we had a 2nd year Baldie fly right over our heads, clutching an American Coot. A single Snow Bunting in the parking lot. SHELDON'S MARSH Nice showing of woodland birds, with a smart-looking male Eastern Towhee pleasant to our teary eyes. In a massive field just west, and immediately south of the 'old Cedar Point causeway' two dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS put on a quick show. At the northern tip of the old Cedar Point Causeway (that overlooks Sheldon's) we found a batch of waterfowl, including only a handful of Gadwall, Redhead, and Common Goldeneye. CASTALIA Tundra Swan (2), Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Mallard, American Black Duck, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Northern Pintail (2), Canvasback, Bufflehead, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, and a male HOODED MERGANSERXCOMMON GOLDENEYE (awesome bird). RESTHAVEN Not a whole lot around, but a single Sharp-shinned Hawk was a tick on the day list. NW Ohio in general I know they're common and almost 'junkie' in the NW, but it was really grand to see at least 16 Bald Eagles today. They seemed to be everywhere. A single AMERICAN KESTREL (of TWO total today) was on 269 just north of Resthaven. Cuyahoga Valley National Park Brecksville Reservation provided a nice mix of woodland species, including stellar looks at a Pileated Woodpecker. We tried for the Short-ears at the Old Richfield Coliseum site, but came up empty. Cheers. Jen Jen Brumfield Akron, Ohio [log in to unmask] Birding America / www.birding-america.com Illustrator/Naturalist, Cleveland Metroparks Nikon Birding Optics ProStaff/ nikonusa.com Editorial Advisor, A Bird's-Eye View / ABA personal site: www.meadowhawkart.com "Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will." - Lawrence Durrell "Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventure." - L. Drachman "We take to the breeze; We go as we please." - E.B. White "Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard _________________________________________________________________ Mortgage rates as low as 4.625% - Refinance $150,000 loan for $579 a month. Intro*Terms http://www.NexTag.com ______________________________________________________________________ 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]