Dan Sanders, Andy Sewell and I made a swing through northwestern Ohio yesterday, November 18. Our first stop was the quarry pond on Rt. 33 about 3 miles west of New Hampshire in Auglaise County. The mixed flock of geese reported by Troy Shivley last week remained. ROSS'S GOOSE - 2 Snow goose - ~25 mostly blue morphs Canada - ~150 The Lima reservoirs were a bust. We found large flocks of ruddy ducks, a few bufflehead, and a single red-breasted merganser. We realized our path northward along I-75 to Oak Openings would take us by Blufton. We whipped off the interstate, drove across Blufton catching all the lights green, rolled in front of Linda Houshower's home and found the RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD sipping from the feeder. (With luck like this, maybe we should try a big day.) At the Nature Center at Oak Openings, we found a good mix of winter birds. We lingered for a while, then headed back to the car. As we were half-way across the parking lot, Dan Barda ran out and yelled "Red-Crossbill"!. We ran back in and were able to get remarkable looks at an immature male drinking from the pool. It disappeared after a minute, but a post on Rarebird.org indicates it was back later in the day. Highlights at Oak Openings: Red-breasted Nuthatch - 3 Purple Finch -2, one of each sex RED CROSSBILL - 1 immature male Our final stop was Maumee Bay State Park, where we spent a great deal of time beating the weeds in the northwestern quadrant of the park looking for the previously reported common redpolls. We dipped on them and snow buntings. The feeders at the closed nature center were drawing only the expected backyard birds. At the beach and "lagoon", a flock of about 80 Canada Geese included one snow goose and one very distinctive CACKLING GOOSE, about half the size of the Canadas with a very stubby bill. Notable Species at Maumee CACKLING GOOSE Snow Goose Canada Goose Herring Gull Ring-billed Gull Bonaparte's Gull American Tree Sparrow We ended the day having missed three of our target species: Common Redpoll, Pine Siskin and Snow Bunting. On the other hand, it was the only time I've seen three review list species (Cackling Goose, Ross's Goose, and Rufous Hummingbird) in a single day. Oddly enough, the best bird of the day, Red Crossbill, was not among them. Such is Ohio birding. Happy Thanksgiving all, Paul Gardner Columbus, 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]