The Black Swamp Bird Observatory Annual Banquet field trips to Ottawa N.W.R. and Metzger Marsh were today. Kenn Kaufman, Mark Shieldcastle, Phil Chaon, member of the OYBC, Bill Heck (BSBO board member), and I had a wonderful morning of birds and birders from all over. Even our quest speaker, Norman Smith from Massachusetts joined us. He really enjoyed seeing 3 American Kestrels today. Massachusetts has only 1 nesting pair left in the entire state and that couple is in downtown Boston. The leading cause of the American Kestrel decline in Massachusetts is the increase of Cooper's Hawks who ARE EATING the American Kestrels. They are finding the kestrel remains in Cooper's Hawk nests. WOW Norman Smiths 25 years of banding Snowy Owls at Logan Airport is legendary. His program on Snowy Owls at our banquet was just amazing and very touching as his 2 children have been helping him since they were two or three years old! Later, while in high school, his daughter decided to do a banding project on Northern Saw-whet Owls in an area where there wasn't suppose to be any migrating owls! Even her dad was scratching his head! Well, this young woman, (thinking outside the box) produced ground-breaking and stunning results. Birding clubs told her that no migrating owls pass through the area and none have been seen here. Believing it was the perfect place, with the right winds during migration, she put-up her nets and began her program. She was also able to get a grant for $5000.00 dollars for night vision equipment. The birding world became amazed with her catches of well-over two thousand N. Saw-whet Owls. The night vision equipment showed that many more owls were flying over the nests and/or bouncing-off or just going around the nets. She also banded a large amount of Long-eared, as well as two Barn, a Barred, and many Eastern Screech Owls. She also banded a variety of hawks to boot at that location during her high school years. Then she tried her parents yard and guess what, she caught Northern Saw-whet Owls! Both Smiths continue their incredible work banding owls and hawks and our hats are off to them. Thank you so much Mr. Norman Smith for that memorable program. We will never forget you and your wonderful studies of Snowy Owls and other birds of prey in Massachusetts. Your research and results from that dedicated work are incredible. I never thought I could learn so much from one program. Last word of thought! Getting our youth involved with nature and wildlife, is one of Norman Smiths and the Black Swamp Bird Observatories greatest goals and were are making it come true. Get back to nature people; it's a great way to live. Here is our bird list for today from Metzger and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. 1. Canada Geese - both places 2. Mute Swan - Metzger 3. Trumpeter Swan - both places 4. Tundra Swan - Metzger 5. Wood Duck - 2 flyovers at Ottawa 6. Gadwall - both places 7. American Wigeon - both places 8. American Black Duck - Ottawa 9. Mallard - both places 10. Northern Shoveler - Ottawa 11. Northern Pintail - Metzger 12. Green-winged Teal - both places 13. Canvasback - Metzger 14. Redhead - both places 15. Ring-necked Duck - both places 16. Lesser Scaup - Metzger 17. Bufflehead - both places 18. Hooded Merganser - Ottawa 19. Common Merganser - Metzger 20. Ruddy Duck - Metzger 21. Pied-billed Grebe - both places 22. Horned Grebe - both places 23. Great Blue Heron - both places 24. Great Egret - (2) - Ottawa parking lot 25. Black-crowned Night Heron - Metzger 26. Bald Eagle - both places 27. Northern Harrier - Metzger 28. Red-tailed Hawk - Ottawa 29. American Coot - both places 30. Sandhill Cranes - 4 - calling and flying; Ottawa 31. Killdeer - both places 32. Wilson's Snipe - Ottawa 33. Ring-billed Gull - Ottawa 34. Herring Gull - Metzger 35. Mourning Dove - both places 36. Great-horned Owl on nest - Ottawa 37. Red-bellied Woodpecker - Ottawa 38. Downy Woodpecker - both places 39. N. Flicker - both places 40. American Crow - Ottawa 41. Horned Lark - Metzger 42. Tree Swallow - Ottawa 43. Winter Wren - Metzger 44. American Robin - both places 45. Yellow-rumped Warbler - Ottawa parking lot fly-over 46. European Starling - Metzger 47. American Tree Sparrow - Ottawa 48. Song Sparrow - both places 49. White-throated Sparrow - Metzger 50. Northern Cardinal - both places 51. RWBB - both places 52. Eastern Meadowlark - Metzger 53. Rusty Blackbird - Ottawa 54. C. Grackle - both places 55. Brown-headed Cowbird - Metzger 56. American Goldfinch - 1 male - Ottawa Later birding fans, Chris Knoll Education Director Black Swamp Bird Observatory Call us anytime: 419-898-4070 Christopher J. Knoll Education Director Black Swamp Bird Observatory 13551 West State Route 2 Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449 Phone: 419-898-4070 Fax: 419-898-1363 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]