This morning I walked the Marie Hickey Trail at Black Hand Gorge, with spectacular results, in my view. Afterwards, since I was dressed for tick prevention anyway, I went out to Dawes Arboretum's Dutch Fork wetlands to see what I could scare up. The day's results: Marie Hickey Trail, Black Hand Gorge: Mourning dove Red-bellied woodpecker Pileated woodpecker Eastern phoebe Gray catbird Swainson's thrush Hermit thrush Wood thrush American robin Blue-gray gnatcatcher Carolina chickadee Tufted titmouse White-breasted nuthatch Blue jay White-eyed vireo Red-eyed vireo Acadian flycatcher Blue-winged warbler Prairie warbler Bay-breasted warbler - only my 3rd ever Black-and-white warbler - 2 - finally! Ovenbird - 3 Hooded warbler - 3 Common yellowthroat Scarlet tanager Eastern towhee Northern cardinal Baltimore oriole (NOTE: This was the day of the thrushes. The wind must have knocked the migrants down last night, because I saw 11 spotted thrushes other than the regular wood thrush that nests there in abundance. I could not positively ID all of them, but of the eleven, I definitely had one hermit and two Swainson's. At one place, I had 5 thrushes that I could follow from where I was standing, not together exactly but doing their skulking act, as usual. I could determine that they were not robins and not wood thrushes, but as I was trying to get a positive ID on them, one at a time, some deer came down the path and spooked the birds. I wanted so badly to get a definitive ID on a veery, but sometimes when the birds are not cooperative and the lighting is less than ideal, you just have to let it go.) Dutch Fork wetlands, Dawes Arboretum Great blue heron Green heron Canada goose Wood duck - with ducklings Mallard Turkey vulture Killdeer Rock pigeon Red-bellied woodpecker Eastern kingbird - first of the year Eastern bluebird American goldfinch Yellow warbler Chipping sparrow Field sparrow Tree swallow Barn swallow Red-winged blackbird Then, when I got home, I heard a very high pitched call from my neighbor's tree, and finally spotted a blackpoll warbler! Total for the day: 47 species Total species in Licking Co. for May, so far: 98 Total Licking Co. for 2007: 146. I can say this for my personal challenge: I think I'm becoming a better birder. I'm not taking any bird for granted, which makes me look more carefully at every bird. That is how I got the bay-breasted warbler - I was looking for the black-and-white that I could hear, saw some vireos, and then the bay breasted popped into view. For a review of the challenge and the results for far, check out this OOS page: http://www.ohiobirds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=234 Margaret Bowman Licking Co., OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]