This was my first full day of birding since January 21. I started late this morning and tried to find the large flocks of geese reported in recent weeks in SW Ohio. I stopped at Caesar Creek SP at the beach of Route 73, and then the gravel pit along Roxanna-New Burlington Road. Not much activity. Then I stopped at the corner of Social Row and Sheehan Roads, south of Dayton, where Rick Asamoto reported a large flock of Canada Geese with 9 Cackling Geese last Sunday. No luck here. So, I headed north. I arrived at Killdeer Plains at about 3 pm. I saw three Long-eared Owls in the distant, alternate conifer grove. One was quite out in the open in a spruce for LEOW. I got some good photos as did another birder from Columbus. The other two were very high in a spruce. It is possible that there were more than 3 Long-eared Owls there, as more have been reported earlier, but I left rather quickly to help minimize disturbing these birds. I finished the day north of Upper Sandusky near the intersection of CH 112 and CH 42 and the white barn along CH 112. This is the area where Rick Counts has reported Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings in the past and as recently as Tuesday, January 22. The last time I was there in January, I drove slowly through the area and did not spend enough time. This time I arrived at about 5:15 pm and stayed until about 6:30 pm. I drove part of CH112 slowly toward the white barn with windows down to listen for call notes but spent most of my time out of the car walking along CH 112. There was no snow cover but there are plenty of birds. Lots of Horned Larks. My best guess is several hundred Horned Larks but they are scattered over the area because the ground was open and thawed. I saw five Snow Buntings, three of which were right along the south side of the white barn feeding along a grassy strip that is right against the south side of the barn and two more along the road north of the white barn. Later there were more Snow buntings out in the fields and flying over. So, I estimate 10 total, but that is probably conservative. A visit earlier than my visit would surely find more. I had only 3 Lapland Longspurs. They were hard to see but easier to find by listening for the dry rattle call note. The Snow Buntings also have a rattle like call note that seems higher pitched and more musical to my ear than that of Lapland Longspur. I suspect, but can not prove that there are more Lapland Longspurs present than I detected. Again an earlier visit would very likely find more. When I left the area at 6:30 pm to a red sunset and darkening sky, the Horned Larks were still calling and some were still singing. I ended the day with three good birds for early February in Ohio, Long-eared Owl, Lapland Longspur and Snow Bunting. And by the way, none of these are easy to find in the Cincinnati or SW Ohio areas! Jay Jay G. Lehman Cincinnati, OH [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]