The forecast had been for a couple of inches of snow at most, certain to melt with afternoon sun. Phoebes and tree swallows, ospreys and blue-winged teals were in the air. Most water was said to be ice-free and thronged with eager waterfowl. Eager too, though perhaps not for nesting, were ten Avids who set out for a two-hour drive in the darkness toward Oregon (OH), the first stop along a trip cherry-picking bird spots along the Erie shore.

A few flakes in Fostoria grew to deep drifts over our favored route north, and we sidestepped to I-75, which as we neared Toledo was paved with pounded ice. Greeted by a Level Two snow emergency, with seven inches of the heavens' bounty, we cushioned the blow with a stop at snowbound Pierson MP in Oregon. Here the feeders' visitors kept us happy for a while. The power plant was a bust, and the lake looked like seething mud, bereft of birds. Soon thereafter, we pulled over—a mite too far—to examine a promising flock of blackbirds, and one vehicle had to be manhandled back into the roadway. At Maumee Bay SP, the nature center director was out shoveling the walk, and we walked the nature trail to much not avail. A harrier gliding by at eye-level was distracting enough to send the same vehicle into a snowbank, but some pushing and shoving soon had it back on the icy road.

The daunting pile of snow in front of the Metzger Marsh entry road persuaded us to continue to Ottawa NWR, where we found the parking lot for the trails had not been plowed. The visitor center was closed. We stood around to reconsider under the sudden sunlight, and watched migrating raptors pass by heading west. We backtracked to Metzger, determined to get in, even if we had to dig vehicles out again. Once past the barrier posed by the highway plows, the entry road was OK, and we were able to spend a happy hour looking for rare birds among the thousands of birds in the impoundment. They were pretty spooky. Every pass by one of the day's many eagles got them up, making it necessary to sort through all of them once again. Relieved, we headed east again, and walked the bird trail, finding pretty much we'd expected—marsh wren, rusty blackbird, a few swallows, and more eagles. We found a nice fire and some helpful volunteers at the visitor center, and got a call that our third vehicle had found the northern shrike along the causeway. Lori had thought to remind her carload that we needed to look for this bird on the way out as well as the way in, whereupon Linda said, "Well, there it is." So it was, and duly observed by all.

By now it was 3ish, and we had calls from Columbus birders that some good ones were to be seen at Hoover Reservoir, so we hurried south. Halfway down, the ground was free of snow, and when we reached the Hoover dam found the loon soon enough, as well as a rather uncooperative red-necked grebe. More tree swallows were about, and a phoebe. Good-sized kettles of TVs drifted overhead. Tired and chilled as we were, we felt lucky to have seen a good sample of both sides of the turn of spring. Challenged as we were, our day's list of 73 species was not bad.