Hi all, A thread has been playing on the ID-Frontiers website which should be of interest to birders. Bob Powell has summarized it nicely on the Ohio Birds Forum at: http://www.ohiobirds.org/forum/ In a nutshell, Common Ravens have been increasing significantly in states just east of us as the Appalachian populations expand westward. These interesting mega-crows once bred widely in Ohio, but were extirpated by 1900 or so. They breed nearly within a stone's throw of Ohio in Pennsylvania, and are on the increase in that state. Some of the big former strip mine sites in places like Belmont, Jefferson, and Harrison counties could/should/might harbor them and birders should be on the alert. I would clamber out on a limb and say that we will get our first breeding record of Common Raven in Ohio in over a century next year, and they'll be found in Jefferson County. Or at least sometime during the course of the ongoing Breeding Bird Atlas II project. Jim McCormac Jim McCormac Columbus, Ohio Like nature? Visit my blog: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/ Like birds? Join the Ohio Ornithological Society: http://www.ohiobirds.org ______________________________________________________________________ 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]