Hi Everyone, After too much time being too busy to bird, Beth and I finally got out today. Would it be gulls and ducks on Lake Erie, or a shot at the Harris¹ Sparrow in Holmes County? In the end rarity won out, and we made the trek down there (as Suzanne had pointed out, driving down from Cleveland on Ohio 94 was a great ride in any event. It was a good trip. We saw the sparrow, and more. In Holmes County, but not at the Millers¹, we had: Northern Mockingbird- 2-3 Eastern Bluebird (quite a few, in different places) Northern Cardinal Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch (a lot!) Red-breasted Nuthatch (1) White-crowned Sparrow Blue Jay Morning Dove American Robin Rock Pigeon House Sparrow European Starling Red-bellied Woodpecker Eastern Screech Owl (red phase‹in an owl box on a post on Township Hwy 366) Red-tailed hawk--several At the Millers¹ we had: HARRIS¹ SPARROW (lots of good looks‹we¹re about #s 260 and 261 to sign the book) White-crowned Sparrow (lots‹they told us they are regular visitors there for the winter) White-throated Sparrow Song Sparrow American Tree Sparrow American Goldfinch Carolina Wren Red-tailed Hawk (a pair, soaring overhead) Northern Mockingbird Red-bellied Woodpecker White-breasted Nuthatch Wilson¹s Snipe (also a regular winter visitor to the farm) We went up to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where we heard Black-capped Chickadees and lots of America Goldfinch. At the Station Road Trailhead we had: Red-tailed Hawk (four flying over the river, one calling quite a bit) Pied-billed Grebe (one, in the river) Hairy Woodpecker (1) Double-crested Cormorants (a flight of 8 or 10) Mallard (a flight of about two dozen) And, in non-avian wildlife, two beavers sitting at the shore and eating the bark off branches‹terrific looks Finally, as the sky was getting dark(er), we went over to the Coliseum site (SR 303 just west of I-271), wondering if there might still be Short-eared Owls there. None appeared, at least by the time we left (about 6:20). Among the little stands of pines in the field, we found one with tons of whitewash on numerous branches, but we found no pellets nor any owls... Best wishes, Steve Cagan Cleveland Hts ----- Steve Cagan, photographer [log in to unmask] 216-932-2753 www.stevecagan.com www.pbase.com/stevecagan ______________________________________________________________________ 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]