Today Kevin Hall joined me to provide help replacing nest boxes destroyed by the wind storm earlier this year. Kevin earned his stripes as he put in a full day going over hill and dale to some difficult locations. Together we managed to install 24 nest boxes, 8 each in Area N, along Old Sunbury Road, and the fun stop, the back recesses of Twin Bridges. With the help of Kevin, Bill Heck, Al Lasala, and Adam Cirone in the field, and the unsung heroes that secured the cedar wood (Darlene Sillick), cut the kits (Charlie Zepp), and assembled the nest boxes (Ralph Windsor), the nest box trail is about 95 percent back up to snuff. My very sincere thanks to each of them. Now, birds - While Kevin and I were working we did keep an eye out for birds. Things were slow (our hammering, etc. didn't help) but we did have some good birds. These included multiple Pileated Woodpeckers, a Rough-legged Hawk, Swamp Sparrow, Eastern Phoebe and Purple Finches, including a beautifully colored male that must have a Hollywood Actor's Card. He perched in the sunlight and calmly fed on seeds while we watched him for about 15 minutes. He was still there when we continued on. The list of species observed includes: Great Blue Heron Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Wood Duck - several handsome males at Mudhen Marsh Mallard Hooded Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Red-tailed Hawk Rough-legged Hawk - soaring over the open areas on the north side of Mudhen Marsh Killdeer Least Sandpiper Bonaparte's Gull Ring-billed Gull Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker - multiple individuals at Twin Bridges Eastern Phoebe - Mudhen Marsh Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Eastern Bluebird American Robin Yellow-rumped Warbler Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Purple Finch - several near trail at Mudhen Marsh House Finch American Goldfinch Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve **************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]