We took visiting relatives down to see the winter glories of the Hocking Hills today, probably one of the few places where Snowy Owls are not invading at present.  If you're thinking that other winter irruptives are invading there, you might want to think again.  We stopped at Old Man's Cave & Conkle's Hollow, and drove around the 664-374 loop, but had nothing in the way of winter finches.  Even Golden-cr. Kinglets were scarce (only had singles at OMC and CH), which is certainly not the case around Columbus right now.  The only birds that were much in evidence were

Hawks - lots of Red-tails along several roads, probably recent refugees from the icy north.  Also had several Kestrels, plua a Red-shouldered along St.374, as well as a few furtive accipiters dashing past the roads.

Vultures - a roost of 12 Turkey Vultures was near OMC, while CH had 2 more

Winter Wrens - single was at OMC, while 2 were in Conkle's

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