On Saturday, 03/15/08, I started the day at Mohican State Park at the
second house past the fire tower at about 8:30 am.  At 9:00 am, the four
female plumaged Evening Grosbeaks came into the large trees in the
backyard and came down to the feeders behind the house.  When I first
arrived, I heard Evening Grosbeak calls in the woods to the left of this
house when facing the back yard.  In addition to the Evening Grosbeaks,
there were the usual late winter-early spring feeder birds in the area
including a single red-breasted Nuthatch.  After thoroughly enjoying the
Evening Grosbeaks, I headed east to the Walnut Creek and Trail area to
try for the Hoary Redpoll.  I arrived at the Levi Yoder's home near
Trail, Holmes County ((Delorme p. 51 D5) at about 10:30 am, having some
difficulty finding TR 415 off of 515.  Feeder activity was very slow,
and no redpolls appeared, but there was a Chipping Sparrow changing into
breeding plumage.  I stayed until about 12:30 or 12:45 pm, when I needed
to leave for a break.  When I returned at about 1:30 pm, the Amish lady
told me that the flock of redpolls showed up shortly after I left and
that they had just left the feeder.  I set up my scope behind the barn
and found a group of 8 redpolls in the top of a tree behind the house.
They were preening and feeding on the buds.  I did find the Hoary
Redpoll (HORE) in this group.  The HORE was more lightly streaked on the
sides than the Common Redpolls and had very little to no streaking on
the under tail coverts, and appeared to be overall somewhat lighter in
color or more "frosty" than the Common Redpolls.  Significantly, it had
the short, small bill and the "smushed in" face, unlike the Common
Redpolls that it was with.  I studied this flock for about 15 minutes
through my telescope, sometimes at 60X, during which time the redpolls
flew to another nearby tree-top.  Eventually they took off and flew
toward Trail along with more finches that appeared to be American
Goldfinches and perhaps more redpolls that were not visible to me.  I
left the Yoder home at about 2:00 pm.  I found the location near New
Bedford in Coshocton County at 31412 TR 227, where the Harris's Sparrow
has been reported.  It was also not that easy to find this location and
the dirt/gravel roads in this area were quite muddy.  Unfortunately, I
chose my route with the most dirt/muddy roads, but returned to New
Bedford on more black topped roads.  I stayed in the area for about 45
minutes scanning/searching the ravine and the yard with blue spruce
trees area from the roadside, but did not find the Harris's Sparrow.

Jay

Jay G. Lehman

Cincinnati, OH

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