Imagine how pleased I was when our first "red finch" in the back yard at our new home was a PURPLE FINCH! A male in stunning color, awash in cranberry with white, not brown--I had to rub the sleep out of my eyes for a second. Is conjunctivitis (in them, not me!) going to shift the finch ratio back in favor of Purples? As a birder of the 80s and 90s, I've rarely seen these guys in Ohio, so please pardon my exuberance, haha...not an Ivory-bill, but a great way to wake up this morning! Scott Wooster DeLorme: 50, B-3 ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]