This is definitely the time to be out watching for crossbills and pine siskins. I had a single red crossbill amongst a group of 17 pine siskins this morning in my yard in North Perry, Lake County. The bird was a female/immature which landed briefly in my birch tree with the siskin flock. They stayed about 2 minutes before flying off. I saw a couple of distant flocks of finches that may have been siskins. Both were 10-20 birds and were quite a ways off. I also had an immature blue-headed vireo that was attempting to sing. It was not doing a good job of it. John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 (440) 259-2751 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]