Today Rick Oxley, his son Richard and I took advantage of a clear calendar and went birding at Killdeer Plains WA and C112 in Wyandot County. Richard earned his Eagle Scout Rank last year with a project that helped extend my Prothonotary Warbler nest box trail at Hoover Reservoir. We mustered our way through snow squalls, overcast skies and fields filled with water and had a very good day for the conditions. At Killdeer Plains we located Short-eared and Long-eared Owls, Northern Harriers, Rough-legged Hawks, Eastern Meadowlarks and Horned Larks among others. At C112 the Snow Buntings were almost as common as the snowflakes and were accompanied by Horned Larks and some Lapland Longspurs. The gusty winds didn’t help the birding but we stuck it out and found most of Rick and Richard’s target species for the day. Locating Short-eared Owls in the open during the day allowed us to head home before the weather got worse. Species we recorded for the trip include: Canada Goose Swans (sp- they never lifted their heads for a positive ID) [2] American Wigeon [8] American Black Duck Mallard Northern Pintail [23] Hooded Merganser [17] Northern Harrier [11] Red-tailed Hawk [10] Rough-legged Hawk [3] American Kestrel [15] Ring-billed Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Long-eared Owl [5] Short-eared Owl [2] Blue Jay American Crow Horned Lark [50+] American Robin European Starling American Tree Sparrow Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Lapland Longspur [10+] Snow Bunting [300-350+] Northern Cardinal Eastern Meadowlark [14] American Goldfinch Charlie Bombaci **************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living. (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/ 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]