I looked for birds today in the Hocking Hills area and visited Conkles Hollow, Old Mans Cave and Cedar Falls. As soon as I arrived at the Conkles parking lot I watched three Black Vultures and three Red-Tailed Hawks riding a tight thermal pretty high into the air. Two of the vultures were chasing each other around which was pretty awesome - providing for about 5 minutes of good views under deep blue winter sky. Walking back into the gorge - notables include a small flock of Pine Siskins, two Brown Creepers, one Yellow-rumped Warbler, a dozen or more Golden-crowned Kinglets and two very good looking Hairy woodpeckers. White-breasted Nuthatches were everywhere. As I came out of the gorge a Red-shouldered Hawk glided over the field by the parking lot. Over at Old Man's Cave, I hiked the rim of the gorge towards Rose Lake and Cedar Falls and found several small flocks of Pine Siskins and at least 6 Red-breasted Nuthatches. I had a very brief look at a notably larger looking finchy bird with big whitish wing bars, short tail and heavily streaked underneath but it flew away before I could study it like I would have liked to. Hiking back out of the woods I found a large roost of vultures that must have just jumped off a cliff nearby because they were low in the valley and even the Turkey Vultures were working hard to get elevation. I counted at least 20 Black Vultures and 50 Turkey Vultures before the dizziness took over. On the way home I buzzed by Lake Logan (Hocking County) and found 7 Mute Swans, 7 Great-blue herons, one Belted Kingfisher, the usual Canada Geese/Mallard combo, and two Gadwall. Throw in a couple coots and grebes and it was time to come home. Glen Crippen Burr Oak Lake ______________________________________________________________________ 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]