Dave, maybe your purple finches have decided to pay a visit to Holmes County
as they venture north!  I just had a male and 2 female purple finches at the
feeder.  There was no doubt as to their ID.  The male was a beautiful wine
color (or as quoted by my birding mentors Ron Reed and John Evens - looked
as if  he was dipped in raspberry juice). The females perched on the
Shepherds hook and looked a little agitated. I'll keep an eye out to see if
they stick around!

Michele Skolmutch
Nashville/Glenmont, Holmes County, Ohio.
PS. Dave, Bob says hi!


On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Dave Hess <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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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