I had another great morning birding on the jogging trail along Steffi Rd in Hilliard. Started out fairly slow at 6:00 am. All I saw were a Common Yellowthroat, House Wren, Robins and R-w Blackbirds. Then I happened upon a Willow Flycatcher, which I usually see around here in the spring but don't seem to breed at this spot. I continued past the open fields and into the woods, where I immediately noticed some bird activity and hung out for a little while. I saw another Yellowthroat, heard some pewees and an Acadian Flycatcher, and saw several Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrushes. Then, from a nearby tree, I heard a call I hadn't heard before. It was very loud and emphatic, high-pitched, sharply staccato and accelerating series of "teep, teep, teep-teep-teep tip-tip-tip-tip-tip" notes. I wondered if it was a CONNECTICUT WARBLER and searched as hard as I could, but for the life of me could not spot it. He only sang about 5-6 times, then stopped. After a while I gave up and moved on. When I got home later I listened to recordings of Connecticut Warblers and confirmed my suspicions. The loudness, accelerating, and staccato qualities were what stood out the most, and made it easier to distinguish from other bird songs. That was definitely the highlight bird for the morning, but picked up a number of other notables as well: Warblers: CONNECTICUT (1, heard only), CANADA (1), Tennessee (1), Yellowthroat (6), Bay-breasted (1), Ovenbird (1), Black-throated Blue (1, female), Redstart (5), Magnolia (2), Blackburnian (1) Vireos: Red-eyed (6), PHILADELPHIA (1), Blue-headed (1, wrestling a HUGE caterpillar about 3-4 inches long!) Flycatchers: Yellow-bellied (1- very cooperative and seen beautifully), Acadian (1, heard), Willow (1), "Traill's" (3-4, probably Willow but possibly Alder, not vocalizing), Great-crested (3), Eastern Wood-pewee (2) plus 1 Lincoln's Sparrow, a flock of Cedar Waxwings, and the resident pair of Spotted Sandpipers Later in the morning I took my kids out to Prairie Oaks MP, where I didn't see a whole lot (gotta keep the eyes on the kids!) but did see three Eastern Kingbirds, a Baltimore Oriole, and a Greater Yellowlegs. Here is a link to a map of the jogging trail I birded this morning, with a marker showing where I heard the Connecticut Warbler: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=39.990175,-83.157513&spn=0.007365,0.013733&t=h&z=16&msid=103669267121720770731.00046a0bd8d43a74f4aed Nate Nye Hilliard, OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]