I'd like to thank Roger for his input ... his scholarship with regard to the history of Ohio Christmas Bird Counts is impeccable ... Roger I'm still very much looking forward to seeing your tome published. As to late season Black-throated Blue Warblers. The latest accepted (documented with photo) record for Ohio is Cuyahoga County, 25 Nov - 10 Dec 2000. It was discovered by Ted Gilliland. Read the original report here ... http://aves.net/birdnews/past1200.htm Subsequently recognized by Rosche, 2004. Birds of the Cleveland Region. This surpassed the previous late record of Cuyahoga County (Garfield Hts), 29 Nov - 5 Dec 1993 [not 4-5 Dec as published in Peterjohn, 2001. Birds of Ohio, 2nd ed.] This individual survived at a feeder (peanut butter). The present record of discussion, a bird discovered by Gayle Thomas 5 Dec and photographed by Ronnie Macko 6 Dec becomes the 2nd latest documented by photograph for Ohio ... and the 3rd in winter. All have been males. The lack of green in the upperparts as depicted in photos I have seen suggest adults but the angles and photo quality have not been definitive. All these records appear within eBird, among the roughly 750 Ohio records for the species thus far. Of these, just two exist for counts exceeding 20 birds (both in May for the Magee Marsh Bird Trail). The common departure from Ohio is 10-16 Oct, although there are several November reports including from Highbanks Metropark, Delaware, 2 Nov 2008, and more in the vein of the above reports from northern Ohio, a male discovered at Veteran's Park, Lake County 29-30 Nov 2006 by Jerry Talkington and Jim McCarty). Furthering the exercise with eBird, there is a distinct pattern of late season (Nov) distribution up and down the eastern seaboard north to southern Maine. December records are largely restricted to Florida (PEAK daily count of 2 for ALL records), and the normal wintering ground in the Carribean. The only other state in the mid-continent with a Dec record is Arkansas (with the caveat that most historical records have not been entered with the eBird database). For example, there is a 24 Dec, 1984 record for Wyoming County, PA (McWilliams & Brauning 2000, Birds of Pennsylvania), and a bird survived at a feeder in Boone County, IN 16 Dec through 20 January 1980 (Mumford & Keller 1984 Birds of Indiana). It is only through these well documented records that we may begin to see a pattern unfold. I would like to remind birders, not that the informed majority of this listserv need be, that we live in VERY INTERESTING TIMES ... and we cannot see all ends. Your observations, most especially those of the every day, are more crucial than ever. Hope this helps put the most recent report from Shari and Ronnie, who have always been a source of quality observations for this editor, in context. cheers Vic Fazio Lawton, OK PS> To examine the eBird record I cite above go to http://ebird.org/ Select View & Explore Tab heading Select Maps Enter Black-throated Blue .. and Continue Using the bar chart tool above the map, select each month in turn to find records for that selected time fram covering the most recent 5 years 2004-2008. If you wish you can change the year entry under CHANGE DATES to encompass a greater time span but until historical data are entered this will probably not be far different from the more immediate years. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]