Hi folks, Yesterday we held our annual Big Day in Glen Helen. Our goal: raise funds to support land management efforts in the preserve, while searching for all the birds we could find within the thousand acre preserve. Organized activities started at 5:30 am, when a group of ten or so greeted the foggy dawn from the Grinnell Road Prairie, and continued on with a variety of hikes and sits in woodland, wetland, and meadow habitats. The weather gradually improved throughout the day, going up from 5:30 am low of 45 degrees to a 4:00 pm high of 68. In retrospect, sunscreen would have been a good choice. Even though the Glen didn't feel as birdy as it was last year for our count (on May 5th), we gradually built up what I would call an entirely impressive tally of 87 species. This count includes 20 species of warblers, even without counting the spectacular male Cape May warbler seen singing across the street on the Antioch campus. Other notable sightings include our first recorded prothonotary warbler, and the first green heron reported since we started listing sightings in 2006. Once again, we missed on two of the species that I considered to be sure things -- rock pigeon and house finch. Also nowhere to be found were yellow billed cuckoo (typically common throughout the summer), plus other birds found within the last 10 days including wild turkey, yellow-throated vireo, grey-cheeked thrush, palm and cerulean warblers. But aside from these misses, we found pretty much everything! Thanks and credit to everyone who lent their time, eyes, and ears to the effort, including Tim and Greg Spahr, Laurel and Molly Finch, Ken and Gretchen Beers, Barbara Geri, Pat Perry, Jeff Robertson, Kelley Haldeman, and anyone else I may be forgetting. Here's the list, as reported from all observers: Great blue heron *Green heron (In mill race at Grinnell Mill) Turkey vulture Canada goose Wood duck (in tree) Mallard Cooper's hawk Red-shouldered hawk Broad-winged hawk *Red-tailed hawk Mourning dove Great horned owl (three in flight) Barred owl Chimney swift Ruby-throated hummingbird Belted kingfisher Red-bellied woodpecker Downy woodpecker Hairy woodpecker Northern flicker Pileated woodpecker *Eastern wood pewee *Acadian flycatcher *Least flycatcher Eastern phoebe Great crested flycatcher *Eastern kingbird White-eyed vireo *Blue-headed vireo Red-eyed vireo Blue jay American crow Northern rough-winged swallow Barn swallow Carolina chickadee Tufted titmouse White-breasted nuthatch Carolina wren House wren Blue-gray gnatcatcher Ruby-crowned kinglet Eastern bluebird *Veery *Swainson's thrush Wood thrush American robin Gray catbird Northern mockingbird *Brown thrasher European starling Cedar waxwing *Tennessee warbler *Nashville warbler Northern parula Yellow warbler Chestnut-sided warbler *Magnolia warbler (great looks at a male along the Yellow Springs Creek) Yellow-rumped warbler Blackburnian warbler Yellow-throated warbler (multiple birds seen in the sycamores) *Bay-breasted warbler *Blackpoll warbler Black and white warbler American redstart *Ovenbird Louisiana waterthrush Common yellowthroat Hooded warbler *Prothonotary warbler (by ear) Summer tanager Scarlet tanager Eastern towhee Chipping sparrow Field sparrow Song sparrow White-throated sparrow (late!) Nothern cardinal Rose-breasted grosbeak Indigo bunting Red-winged blackbird Common grackle Brown-headed cowbird Baltimore oriole American goldfinch House sparrow * first of the year bird -Nick ------------------------- Nick Boutis Executive Director Glen Helen Ecology Institute 405 Corry St. Yellow Springs, OH 45387 Visit us online, at www.glenhelen.org ______________________________________________________________________ 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]