Hurray! A pair visited the water garden underneath my backyard fir tree. I first was startled when I saw the yellow underside of the female, since Pine Siskins are frequent visitors. I never saw a WWCrossbill, but the beak was a dead giveaway. Very skittish bird. She flew away when our cat (ALWAYS kept indoors) looked out the sliding glass door. About 15 minutes later the male returned with her. She was busy hopping around the dead limbs that fell into the water garden over the winter, gathering small globs of leftover duckweed and dead vegetation. Our neighbor has 8 large conifers in her backyard and they fly over to her yard. Here's today's report from my backyard feeding station: 2 White-wing Crossbill(male & female) 4 Pine Siskins WB Nuthatches Robins Starlings House Sparrows House Finches(pair) Red-bellied Woodpecker Dark-eyed Juncos Tufted Titmouse(2) Cardinals(pair) Carolina Wren Crows(nearby trees) Bluejays Bald Eagle(soaring overhead) Canada Geese(flying overhead) Goldfinch Visit the "CREATE WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY YARDS" SITE AND VIEW "HOT OFF THE PRESS: SONGBIRDS RETURNING TO OHIO" IN RIGHT MARGIN. ROBERT http://wildlifefriendlylawn.blogspot.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ 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]