Lee Underschultz Firefly Hollow Little Hocking,OH I got a call from my birding buddy in Parkersburg, WV (just across the Ohio river) telling me that the Purple Martins are back at her house. Probably just the first scouts but they were checking out her Martin box. I got out on the trails late again yesterday here but saw the Yellow-Throated Warbler and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler. I saw an Ovenbird in the usual hot spot for them. The Louisiana Waterthrushes have moved deeper into the woods back by the waterfall. Watching the aoerobatics along the creek after they first bobbed along the waters edge, flipping leaves and then plunging their heads into the water after some miniscule treat kept me entertained for a good 20 mins. before I had to move on. The bluebirds have at least one egg in their nestbox. Today brought a beautiful little Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher to see me as I grabbed a few minutes to work in the garden. Dressed in his Easter best I could see where they get the "blue" in their name. Fresh breeding plumage and a black eyebrow with his bright white eye rings accentuated his spastic flittering from branch to branch. Unfortunately I also saw my first cowbirds of the season too. I had all the dead trees cleared from the trails so if anyone wants to come join us for a hike around the trails just e-mail me and we'll arrange a time to get together. There are about 3.5 miles through the woods. Or you can just spend time sitting by the creek. That's probably where most of the activity occurs around here. Everything from Green Herons to Hawks to warblers, tanagers, orioles, Song Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, Phoebes and the regular feeder visitors (Cardinals, Golfinches, Titmice, Chickadees, etc.). We are located 1 mile off of US Rt.50 about 35 miles southeast of Athens. Our farm is in both Athens and Washington counties (95 acres total). I will be participating in the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas 2 project and would appreciate any help with the surveys here on our property. There has been no data to date collected for this block of Ohio (for the OBBA2) so any info will be helpful. Lee Underschultz Firefly Hollow Little Hocking, OH 1.5 miles from the Ohio river ______________________________________________________________________ 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]