I had a couple of interesting birds while doing some Atlas work for OBBA2 this weekend.

First, while in the Quad in Chillicothe that includes Walmart and the Annex across the Scioto River..I could not believe that a Purple Finch was on the ground under a Silver Maple..distance was only 25ft. or so..he was a brilliant wine color, ..I checked and re-checked.. no trace of brown on or near the head, there was a trace of streaking on the flank-(very lite) This was no House Finch..he did not respond to my I-pod with calls of both..I am not quite sure what to make of this one.

He is inside safe dates..must has to be a very, very late migrate. I can go with observed on this one..but still uneasy with it.

On Sunday evening(7pm), Jim Fry and I checked the "Luckhart Swamp" area off Charleston Pike-near Oak Lane, Delorme 78-A-3.. looking for the Rails. Re-found the Virgina, and the Sora was giving us problems, with only short calls..hard to tell for sure on him. The Virgina Rail even took flight once! Something in the swamp scared it up!(Not us).

For me the best bird was the Swamp Sparrow that we thought was singing behind us ,and we played his call, and he came right over..we got great looks at about-35ft. My first for any area in the Atlas.

Dave Hess
SVBNC
Chillicothe

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