Paul Gardner and I birded the Deer Creek area for a couple of hours this morning. Very quiet, with the only birds moving about in significant numbers being starlings. Strangely, not a single duck or goose was present. At the East St. Wetlands area at New Holland, the best bird was a woodcock we flushed while walking the edges of the wetlands. Lots of Swamp Sparrows, a few Song Sparrows, and a couple of White-crowned Sparrows were present, but no ammodramus sparrows were detected. Also of note was a Red-shouldered Hawk flying through a bordering woodlot, and two Marsh Wrens that were still singing away. The beach area at Deer Creek Lake held a few kildeer and a small gull flock which was about evenly split between Bonaparte's Gulls and ring-bills, with two Herring Gulls thrown in to spice things up. More Bonaparte's Gulls were foraging over the lake, which had five Common Loons and 8 Pied-billed Grebes, but as I mentioned above, zero ducks or geese. The resident vulture flock contained five Black Vultures. Looks like northern Ohio is the place to be today! Good birding, Andy Sewell Columbus, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]