Howdy All, In pursuit of 100 species in January, I started the day at 96. I added American Woodcock, Winter Wren, Northern Pintail, Long-eared Owl, and Tundra Swan. I visited East Fork SP (EFSP) at the Horseman's Trailer Parking Area before first light. Bill Stanley reported on cincinnatibirds.com an American Woodcock displaying here on Wednesday, 01/24/07. This is located along the road from the north entrance to the north boat ramp. The north entrance to EFSP can be reached from Route 32 east from I275 taking the exit at Half Acre Road. It was rather cold Saturday morning and the occasional wind interfered with hearing, but I did finally hear an American Woodcock making the "chippering" notes that it makes when it descends from its flight. A brief look at the lake from the North Boat Ramp revealed a large flock of gulls filling the air across the lake at the south beach and a soaring Bald Eagle, which apparently put the gulls in the air. I found a Winter Wren in the wooded area just west of the North Beach parking lot, in the weeds and piles of logs and branches deposited there by high water. At Englewood Metropark, Dayton area, if found the one Northern Pintail across the lake from the boat landing area. There was a flock of 20 Green-winged Teal. These birds were reported by on January 23 by Ed and Bev Neubauer. Thanks Ed and Bev for the report on Ohio Birds! At Killdeer Plains WA, I searched both pine groves. Nothing in the main one along Road 71. After searching for at least an hour, I finally found two Long-eared Owls in the far grove off of 108, which I accidentally flushed. These birds were very skittish, even though I was wallking slowly and as quietly as possible, and they stirred up the local Blue Jays--the jays screamed each time they flew. When another group from Cincinnati arrived, one of them found one of the owls as it flew in right near him from the pines on the north side. I was creeping up on the location of this owl in the pines when it flushed. We all stayed very quiet and as motionless as possible to watch this bird. It was very difficult to see, as they are very skilled in the art of camouflage. A note about flying Long-eared Owls seems relevant. When I saw these two fly right over me, I thought that they were Short-eared Owls, because their heads were very rounded and the under wing markings looked almost identical to those of a Short-eared Owl. However, when we saw the one bird sitting, the facial discs and the raised long ears confirmed the ID. The upper wings of Long-eared and Short-eared are also quite similar. Both species have buffy wing patches, but Long-eared Owls are grayer on the upper wings, which could be seen when these birds ducked into trees to land. This upper wing color difference is shown quite well in David Sibley's field guide, one of the few places where one can conveniently find this type of detail of birds in flight. Sibley also shows that Long-eared Owls have a rounded head like Short-eared in flight. I guess, as Bill Whan mentioned in a conversation on Sunday, 01/28/07, one could easily tell a Long-eared Owl in flight by the facial discs, if the bird was flying right toward you. According to Sibley, there are other details, like the amount and darkness of streaking on the underparts and the amount of dark markings on the primaries from below in flight that can be used to distinguish the two species. However, one must study these birds in the field in flight a lot to use the streaking on the underparts and the under-wing-tip pattern. I do not see them often enough. In the ponds along Marion Wyandot Road at the last parking area to the west, I counted 43 swans, apparently all Tundra Swans, on the ice and in a small patch of open water. All of the swans with raised heads were Tundra Swans, due to the concave (not flat) curved bill and forehead profile and very narrow black line to the eye. None of this group appeared to be Trumpeter Swans. For the birds with heads tucked, none were the larger size of Trumpeter and none had neck bands. I ended the day with 101 species for January, and before dark I headed north to the Cleveland area. Jay Jay G. Lehman Cincinnati, OH [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]