Today I had a little time to visit the VOA following up on a post from 4/7/07 on the Cincinnati <http://cincinnatibirds.com/goodbird/sighting.php> Birds sightings log of a sparrow-like bird with white outer tail feathers. I was there from about 12:10 p.m. until about 1:00 p.m. I searched the area described on the sightings log and did not find the bird at first, so I drove around to other parts of the property where I managed to find 2 Northern Harriers, 1 American Kestrel, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 20+ Eastern Meadowlarks and 2 Wilson's Snipe. I went back to the main access road near the park permit booth and drove slowly along the wooden fence. Suddenly a small bird with white outer tail feathers flew onto the fence but quickly flew off to a ditch with a small amount of water along the road that leads into the Important Bird Area past the booth. This bird was very skittish and there was really no place to park the car in this immediate vicinity. I drove past where the bird flew but could not relocate it. I had to turn the car around and double back. When I drove down to the end of the fence and circled back, I found the bird again. This time the bird was more cooperative as it foraged for about 2-3 minutes along the roadside before flying off again. Staying in the car and viewing the bird only a few feet away on the driver's side, I was able to make out the white eye ring and faint streaking on the upper breast and flanks. The chestnut shoulder patch was not visible on this bird (this mark is rarely visible on the species). This bird was paler than most other sparrows with which I am familiar and the streaking on the head was also very fine. There was one mark on this bird that seems much paler in most field guides I have seen. The auriculars were more of a chestnut coloration on this bird than the usual tan. The auriculars were bordered in black. David A. Brinkman 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]