I was in southern California from May 26 until evening June 14. So I pretty much missed the late migrants. Since returning to the farm I have a few observations worth noting.

Rose-breasted grosbeak numbers appear to be up this year. I hear them in multiple  locations (territories?) in the woods. Also, for the first time in eight years, at least one grosbeak is a regular visitor to the sunflower feeder. They are always present in our summer woods, but this one (or more) has finally discovered the feeder.

This morning a red-headed woodpecker visited the suet for the second day in a row. I have seen this magnificent species twice here before, an adult on the suet in 2005 and juvenile on the back-forty snag in 2006. They are elsewhere in the neighborhood, within a mile or two, but not common here. Maybe there is a new nest nearby. (?) It would suit me just fine to add a six resident woodpecker.

The back-forty snag is no more! When we moved here in July 2000 there was a wonderful 5-stemmed ash snag emerging from a thicket on the "back-forty" (actually it's six acres we manage as successional field.) Over the ensuing years the wind has knocked down one dead stem after another, until this spring only a single emergent branch remained. It fell sometime in the past couple weeks. It seems odd to lament the demise of a dead tree, but I will miss it. I have watched many species, from indigo buntings to tree swallows to Blackburnian warblers to turkey vultures enjoying the lofty perch overlooking the scrub. Bluebirds nesting "naturally" in a downy woodpecker hole there in 2006. There are other snags along the field edges nearby but this one stood alone in the field. Time and decay march on.

A great many house wrens occupy the edges of the aforementioned "back forty," far more than previous years. I heard 4 singing wrens out there yesterday.

Warblers singing in mid-June include hooded, yellow, common yellowthroat, Louisiana waterthrush, ovenbird. I haven't seen nor heard a chat this year, the second straight year without a chat, although the habitat seems good.

Baltimore orioles are flying regularly over the "homesite." I haven't quite figured out where their nest is this year.

Bluebirds are around, but not nesting in the bluebird boxes. Tree swallows are nesting in four of the seven boxes, house sparrows in one (grrr...).

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County
DeLorme 70 A1 (classic editions)

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