Folks, I visited Todd at lunch and asked him to show me Lake Brittle and Manasas to see the birds he recently reported. Fortunately he could get away for a bit. A Lake Brittle we saw the Hooded Mergansers. Fantastic! I counted 170 birds (I don't know how he got 174, but well, I have taken a few more math courses...) In the middle of this big flottilla, sat a somewhat bemused Lesser Black-backed Gull! Cool! Off to the sides were 50 or so Mallard, 20 or so Ruddy Ducks, 8 Lesser Scaup and a Common Merganser; also a Herring Gull and a few Ring-bill Gulls. As we watched, a Pileated flew over the lake and this female Hairy kept calling behind us. Fun! At Lake Manasas we watched 6 Common Mergansers, a Red-breasted Merganser and 3 Pied-billed Grebes from the dam. In the distance, an adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree about 150 yds from the nest of a Bald Eagle pair from last year (one of the same birds?). As we watched, a dart flew across the lake and across the dam to perch on a high power line tower. Merlin. Boy did those Juncos fly to the cedars! Diversion complete, I dropped Todd off and continued on home. Wish I had similar diversions like this every day. Kurt Gaskill, kurtcapt@aol.com