Hey all - The weather was miserable this morning at the dike. The birds, however, were not...and they kept me standing out in an icy rain for two whole hours. There were actually some birds moving, despite the weather - the most surprising of which were 6 Tree Swallows. Flickers were also moving in good numbers, some dropping into the dike. There were probably 200 mixed sparrows just along the fence to the east and south of the dike, the highlight being at least one CLAY-COLORED. Quite a few warblers, including SEVEN Orange-crowneds were also seen just along the fencerow and by peering into the dike. I actually saw the orange crown on an Orange-crowned Warbler for the first time today, after seeing many, many Orange-crowneds over the years. Probably because of the cold front and the resulting rain - this place was crawling with birds this morning, just amazing. And all this goes to show that some quite decent birding can be had by working the east and southen fences at the dike, without actually entering the property. For more info on the Dike 14 property, see Jim McCarty's Aerial View coulmn in the Plain Dealer today. Highlights: Wood Duck 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2 Northern Flicker 20 Tree Swallow 6 Swainson's Thrush 1 American Pipit 5 Orange-crowned Warbler 7 Nashville Warbler 4 Cape May Warbler 1 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Palm Warbler 25 Ovenbird 1 CLAY-COLORED SPARROW 1 Good birding - Gabe Leidy Cleveland ____________________________________________________________________________________ Catch up on fall's hot new shows on Yahoo! TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more! http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/3658 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]