I visited the cemetery today for two hours (1:40 p.m. - 3:40 p.m.). There was a lot of bird activity, especially in sections 124, 125, 53, 132, 133, 39, 52 and 51. Winter food supply is as follows: hemlock cones - abundant, spruce cones - moderate (some not yet ripe), berries - abundant and acorns - abundant. Despite this, the only "irruptive" species I could find were the red-breasted nuthatches. They were utilizing both the conifers and deciduous trees - namely hemlock, spruce and silver maple. The male RBNU I saw on the 6th was using white ash to retrieve cached seeds and nuts as well as white pine. I casually searched for owl sign and found a probable great horned roost in section 57. There was significant whitewash under a large white pine in addition to the bones and feathers of what appeared to be a crow wing. Another highlight was 4 chipping sparrows, three of which were foraging among a flock of 62+ juncos milling about sections 51 and 52. The vast majority of chickadees found were feeding on hemlock cones. In the past I have seen white-winged crossbills and pine siskins in these same trees but no luck with these winter finches today. The plethora of acorns provided a favorite food source for blue jays, titmice and red-bellied woodpeckers. The abundant berries among the various fruit producing plants provided sustenance to robins, starlings, mockingbirds, cardinals and white-throated sparrows. Canada Goose 13 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Mourning Dove 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 9 Downy Woodpecker 3 Blue Jay 10 American Crow 66 Carolina Chickadee 37 Tufted Titmouse 7 Red-breasted Nuthatch 7 Carolina Wren 6 Golden-crowned Kinglet 8 American Robin 135 Northern Mockingbird 2 European Starling 82 Eastern Towhee 2 Chipping Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 20 White-crowned Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco 95 Northern Cardinal 8 American Goldfinch 4 -- David A. Brinkman Cincinnati, OH * Spring Grove Cemetery is in Hamilton county accessed from Mitchell Ave. Exit, I-75 South (next exit after I-74). ______________________________________________________________________ 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]