Today started out pretty quiet. I counted 1,000 mergansers early and then things quieted down. Around 9:30 all hell broke loose with huge flocks of waterfowl and streams of gulls. From 9:30-10:30 I counted about 11,000 red-breasted mergansers. There were lots of other waterfowl passing by also. Of note was a female/immature EIDER. It was too far to get a positive ID. It was with a group of 6 surf scoters. All three species of scoters were seen. All of the birds were heading east. the largest merganser flock consisted of close to 3,000 birds. This is the most mergansers I have seen here since 2004. It is still way below the flocks of 20,000+ I had in the late 1990's Bonaparte's gulls were almost nonexistent. the lone good gull was a lesser black-backed. Also of note over the lake was a rough-legged hawk. Undoubtedly the best day of the season. Lakeshore Waterbird Survey Lakeshore Reservation, North Perry December 6, 2009, 7:15-10:30 Weather- cloudy, Winds- SW 5-10 increasing to 10-15, Temp- 30-32 F, Barometer- 30.32-30.35, Humidity-71-74, Dew point- 21-20 Waves- 1-3 feet increasing to 2-4 feet, Flight direction- east Canada goose 129 Tundra swan 67 American black duck 4 Mallard 61 Mallard x American black duck 1 Canvasback 127 Redhead 6 Greater scaup 9 Lesser scaup 58 EIDER spp. 1 SURF SCOTER 8 WHITE-WINGED SCOTER 3 BLACK SCOTER 4 Common goldeneye 37 Common merganser 143 Red-breasted merganser 12,739 Common loon 3 Rough-legged hawk 1 Bonaparte's gull 16 Ring-billed gull 946 Herring gull 82 Lesser black-backed gull 1 Great black-backed gull 6 John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 (440) 259-2751 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]