Yesterday, Sunday, June 24, on I70 about 2 miles east of the I77
interchange on I70 at 3:00 to 3:30 pm, a Common Raven flew east along the
east-bound lane of I70.  I was returning from a family event in SE
Pennsylvania.  Traffic was jammed for several miles on the I70 west-bound
lane due to construction.     As I was crawling along at 1 to 3 mph, I
noticed a large black, relatively long-winged bird flying east toward me
over the east-bound lane.  When the bird was parallel to my van, I could
see the large bill and head and the wedge-shaped tail.  I stopped at The
Wilds to look for Grasshopper Sparrow, a bird I was missing from my Ohio
year list and found them readily on Zion Ridge Road at 3 of 4 locations
where I stopped to check:  soon after the turn off of Rt 146 on to Zion
Ridge Rd near the signs about grassland birds and research I had one GRSP
seen singing on territory and with a second bird (female) giving tinkling
call notes in the grass; at the gated, entrance road to the lodge one was
seen singing from the wire fence that runs south from the gate, and one
heard only singing in the fields above the pond on the south side of Zion
Ridge before the intersection at the end of Zion Ridge Rd.  These
observations were between about 5:00 to 6:00 pm.  I also heard about 6
Henslow's Sparrows and 2 Savannah Sparrows.  With these sparrows so
relatively easy to find, I wonder what a survey would uncover with stops at
every half mile during early morning?

Jay Lehman, Cincinnati, sent from DROID

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