Nice birding day in Fremont yesterday. Walked my 150 lb. King Sheppard around the block. A high pitched call came high in a stately oak but I only got a glimpse of it and couldn't identify. Sounded like a high-pitch call with the tempo of a N. Flicker. Went over my bookmarked bird songs on the computer, and sounded somewhere between a Flicker, Sharp-shinned and Northern Goshawk. It had a long tail and was only slighter larger than a Sharp-shinned. The voice tempo was so much like a Flicker that I initially thougt it was one until I briefly saw it through the binocs. Definately not a Sharp-shinned and the voice call definately not a Coopers Hawk. Are there N. Goshawks in the area this time of year? I looked at the Patuxent site and there are none shown spotted in the map sightings marked off in Ohio. Drove to Fremont water filtration plant and was met by a large, adult Bald Eagle being harassed by Ring-billed gulls, but she had no problem outmaneuevering them in the air with dives and sudden swoops upward. Noticed an old Baltimore Oriole nest (I assume) hanging like a small basket high in a large sycamore tree. The gulls quit dive-bombing the eagle (I assume it was a large female eagle). A pair of American Mergansers paddled away far ahead of me in the Sandusky River...very wary birds! Counted a pair of Buffleheads and over 35 Lesser Scaup and one pair of Ring-neck ducks a short distance away from them. Back home, my bird feeder had newly-arrive pair of House finches, RB and WB nuthatches, Tufted Titmouse pair, Bluejay, Robins, Common grackles, Red-bellied woodpecker (2 pairs nesting in neighborhood of large oak and maple), dozens of newly-arrived Goldfinches, one Brown-headed cowbird, 8 Cardinals, 5 Mourning doves, male and female Downy woodpecker, BC chickadee, Dark-eyed juncos, and one Song sparrow. Robert
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