This morning Jackie & Tom Bain and myself led a walk for the Delaware County Preservation Parks Chapter of the Ohio Young Birders Club at Blue Creek Preserve. The weather was nippy with a wind chill factor and I saw gloves out for the first time since last March. As dismal as the weather was and even though overall activity was somewhat slow, only 30 species, it turned out to be a good walk as we had some nice finds. Last Saturday we worked the Northern side of the preserve along the stream beds. This week we worked the Southern areas as we walked the Shagbark Loop Trail and the Blue Stem Trail. We started off with a group of Fox Sparrow along the side of the Shagbark Loop Trail. This trail also produced White-crowned Sparrow, Purple Finch and Pine Siskin. Over the fields to the west of the trail we got nice views of a female Northern Harrier. A variety of grassland birds were present in the areas along the Blue Stem Trail. The species observed by the group included: Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Mourning Dove Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Brown Creeper Carolina Wren Eastern Bluebird American Robin European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler American Tree Sparrow Field Sparrow Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Purple Finch Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Charlie Bombaci **************AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other Holiday needs. Search Now. (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212792382x1200798498/aol?redir=http://searchblog.aol.com/2008/11/04/happy-holidays-from -aol-search/?ncid=emlcntussear00000001) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]