A 90-minute hike today behind our house up one of the headwater ravines of Salt Run in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park revealed many of the usual winter woodlands suspects for NE Ohio. But the best birds were probably the 5 Eastern Bluebirds and the 2 Brown Creepers. The bluebirds were special insofar as they are not common hereabouts in January but even more so because they were in full winter mode: feeding on berries and hawking the occasional insect down in the bottom of a ravine--deep in the woods--while traveling with a band of Juncos, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Tufted Titmice. And the Brown Creepers, well, they are just always a treat aren't they? I topped the day off with 3 Short-eared Owls at dusk hunting over the old Coliseum site in the CVNP at 303 and 271. Patrick Coy Peninsula ______________________________________________________________________ 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]