Most shallow water is still frozen so very few waterfowl are visible in the area except a couple hundred ducks and snow geese that were seen milling around the overcast skies. Besides 2 bald eagles and a rusty blackbird there wasn't much to see at Ballard this morning. However, I did see two interesting birds on my way to and from the house this morning. The first was either a redwing or grackle with a great deal of white in its plumage. It was in a distant flock of several thousand blackbirds and I first thought it could be a yellow headed. However it had no yellow but a completely white head, white upperwing coverts and some white in the mantle and tail. I'm leaning strongly towards redwing on this one as it appeared that the white in the wings was where you would expect to see the red and yellow epaulets. The other bird was a cooper's hawk that let me approach on foot to within 20 feet to take photographs. I thought this quite odd at the time and unfortunately after reviewing the photos it is apparent that the bird only has one eye. Animals are quite adaptable but it would seem unlikely to me that a bird that requires binocular vision to capture fleeing prey would have much of a chance surviving such an injury. Other birds of interest were scattered horned larks, lots of eastern meadowlarks and a sharp-shinned hawk. Scott Record Ragland KY