Today I took Al LaSala birding at Blackhand Gorge Nature Preserve in Licking County. This was the first time Al has been to Blackhand Gorge and likely not the last. The weather was great, comfortable temperatures, low humidity, sunny and cooperative birds. We started with the Marie Hickey Trail on the north side of the Licking River. The trail is accessed from Rockhaven Road. Then we birded the Blackhand and Quarry Rim Trails on the south side of the Licking River. These are accessed from the main parking lot which is off CR 273 just before Toboso. My highlight of the day was a gorgeous male Cerulean Warbler that foraged about 20 feet from us at eyelevel in the sunlight. His color was stunning and often not seen as the species prefers the tree crowns and usually doesn’t drop down to give such splendid views. He didn’t lack strong competition as we also had a Prairie Warbler show off as it alit on a low shrub directly in front of us and did a 360 degree turn to ensure we didn’t miss ant field marks. Then there were the multiple Blue-winged Warblers that perched at the tops of large shrubs or moderately sized tress and sang their buzz like call for us. We also got great views of the many Yellow-breasted Chats that seemed to be everywhere. A conservative estimate is that we had well over a dozen Chats living up to their descriptive name. The birds present are all species that nest at Blackhand Gorge as we didn’t observe any late migrants. Speci es included: Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Hooded Merganser ducklings (Bottonbush Swamp) Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Barred Owl Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Least Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher White-eyed Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch House Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Blue-winged Warbler Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Prairie Warbler Cerulean Warbler Ovenbird Louisiana Waterthrush Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird American Goldfinch House Sparrow Charlie Bombaci ______________________________________________________________________ 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]