Hello! Early this evening while traipsing through the snow at Highbanks, I heard a pair of Great-Horned Owls calling to each other along the spur trail leading to the Adena mound off of the Dripping Rock trail. This is the same area where a pair nested and produced owlets last year. I have heard this pair fairly consistently in this area since Christmas Eve evening. This evening, the calling female was sitting in a tree all puffed up in plain view just east of where the spur takes a 90 degree turn to the south. We stared at each other for awhile (I blinked first) before I moved on back towards the nature center. At a feeder under a Norway Spruce at the corner of the main park road and the first left turn into the Oak Coves area, I saw a Field Sparrow feeding with White-Throated and American Tree Sparrows. Earlier in the day, Bruce Simpson, naturalist at Blendon Woods Metro Park, told me that he saw a Field Sparrow at a feeder outside of the Nature Center window while at Highbanks a day or two ago. Apparently, this may be the same bird. In addition to the pair in the Adena mound area, a second pair of Great-Horned Owls is nesting once again in the sycamore tree in the ravine adjacent to the Mansion area (for the 5th time in the last 6 years of which I know). This tree can be observed from the segment of the Dripping Rock trail adjacent to the back loop of the pet trail. Several times over the past month or so, I have observed the male roosting in an evergreen tree on the edge of the ravine near the sycamore, and Chrissy Pheifer (Highbanks naturalist) saw the male perched on the lip of the bowl in which the nest is located a few weeks ago. During an owl hike led by Doc Jordan of Highbanks on Feb. 3rd, this same pair were heard calling to each other in the area around the sycamore tree. Just as last year, there apparently will be two known Great-Horned Owl pairs nesting in Highbanks with hopefully the same successful results as last year. On January 20th, I heard a pair of Screech Owls calling in the area of the Adena mound, and Doc Jordan and others heard one calling near the junction of the Dripping Rock and Overlook trails during the Feb. 3rd owl hike. At times, the resident Barred Owls have been seen along the main road just past the ranger office turn-off and in the loop of the pet trail that runs through a wooded area. So anyone hiking along the trails at Highbanks may want to keep their eyes and ears open for up to three different owl species. Highbanks is in southern Delaware County just south of the intersection of U.S. Route 23 and Powell Road. Directions to Highbanks can be found at _www.metroparks.net_ (http://www.metroparks.net) . If anyone would like more specific directions to the location of the sycamore tree containing the owl nest, please e-mail me privately or ask one of the three naturalists at Highbanks (Suzan Jervey, Chrissy Pheifer, or Doc Jordan). Rob Lowry Powell, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]