As predicted by the winds last night, today brought in some new migrants. I had what I would call my strangest morning ever. It started with a Great Horned Owl sitting prominently atop a tree, completely exposed in the sun. Then I had a 7 ft long object scuttle away, which turned out to be a random male peacock running around in the woods. Finally, in a small grassland-type area I flushed an Upland Sandpiper along the run. Weird. Full list below, species of interest in caps: Observation date: 4/18/09 Number of species: 56 Canada Goose 4 Mallard 12 Great Blue Heron 2 Turkey Vulture 3 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1, taking out a robin Cooper's Hawk 2 Red-tailed Hawk 1 UPLAND SANDPIPER 1, absolutely bizarre bird, in a small slightly overgrown field behind some houses in Willow Brooks retirement community Rock Pigeon 6 Mourning Dove 12 Great Horned Owl 1 CHIMNEY SWIFT 1, flyover Belted Kingfisher 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1 Downy Woodpecker 5 Hairy Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 3 Eastern Phoebe 4 YELLOW-THROATED VIREO 2, singing BLUE-HEADED VIREO 1 Blue Jay 10 American Crow 7 Tree Swallow 2 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW 4 Carolina Chickadee 15 Tufted Titmouse 10 White-breasted Nuthatch 6 Brown Creeper 3 Carolina Wren 8 Golden-crowned Kinglet 22 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 11 Hermit Thrush 2 American Robin 45 European Starling 50 Cedar Waxwing 6 NORTHERN PARULA 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Eastern Towhee 3 Chipping Sparrow 14 Field Sparrow 2 Song Sparrow 20 Swamp Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 30 Dark-eyed Junco 3 Northern Cardinal 25 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 1, female Red-winged Blackbird 15 Common Grackle 5 Brown-headed Cowbird 20 PURPLE FINCH 1, female House Finch 4 PINE SISKIN 6, still singing and displaying American Goldfinch 20 House Sparrow 35 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) Good birding, Sean -- Sean Williams Ohio Wesleyan University Lab of Dr. Jed Burtt ______________________________________________________________________ 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]