Tim and I went to Columbus to see the tern.  Arrived at the dam area at 12:15, saw the tern, flying and then sitting on pier, at 1:00, left at 1:15.  
 
We headed to Galena, at the north end of the lake for lunch at the Mudflat Bar & Grill.  They have a new chef since the last time we were there (admitidly it has been a while) and the food is excellant (it always was good).  Best place for lunch when birding Hoover Resv.
 
Then we headed to Knox Co for the Raven.  We didn't hold out much hope.  This seems to be a hard bird to just chance upon, even when you know there is one in the area.  We have tried several times and failed.  But not this time.   We saw it twice in about 1/2 hr, though both looks were pretty distant.  But here is the really wierd thing.  We saw it flying over a field & then landed high in a tree along the edge of the road.  I kept my eye on it while Tim went to get the scope out and get it set up.  Just as Tim got out of the car, the Raven flipped upside down while still clinging to the branch he was on!  He hung there for several seconds, close to a minute, & then dropped off and flew to an even more distant tree.  Has anyone ever seen or heard of anything like this?  We were too far away for me to see what he was doing or how he was hanging on but he was definitely hanging upside down from the branch.
 
This sighting was from the intersection of College Hill Rd & Koppert Rd, looking east.  The tree he was perched in was on the east side of College Hill.  We saw him  again on Reed Rd in the woods just east of Swendal Rd., about 20 minutes later.  Both of these sightings were between about 4:00PM and 4:30PM.
 
For both of us, the most useful identification clue was in the way he flew.  We have just gotten back from AZ where we watched big number of ravens flying.  They soar like a hawk, so much so that we had more trouble telling ravens and hawks apart then we did ravens and crows.  And this guy hardly ever flapped his wings.
 
Quite a day!  Two new birds for our state list and a great lunch.
 
Laura Dornan
Louisville

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]