Hi Folks, Yesterday, we held the 3rd annual Make it Count for the Birds in Glen Helen -- our big day/fundraiser. Before I dig into the details, let me start with a disclaimer: this is all unofficial. I don't have reports yet from a couple of the late afternoon/evening groups. We may well be able to add a bird or two to the final tally. We had nine organized hikes/sits over the course of the day, and many, many talented observers leading them. High count for the hikes was our 5:30 am dawn chorus. The dozen people who came out for this hike found 53 species in a quarter mile stretch of Grinnell Rd. The Winds Cafe contributed pecan and apricot scones to the effort, and we are looking into whether the resulting feast qualifies as a world record earliest-morning-gourmet tailgating-party. Overall, it wasn't ideal conditions for a big day. Weather in the morning was grey with low cloud cover. Most of the low clouds blew off by 10 or 11 am, but then it got windy. Overall numbers were low, with a few exceptions. Baltimore orioles, great crested flycatchers and magnolia warblers showed up on pretty much every hike, and in multiple habitat types. Yellow-throated vireo were common, even though we missed those entirely last year. Most of the warblers seen were found only once. Luck was a big factor today. In all, we found a respectable 21 species of warblers, even though we somehow missed yellow warbler. Also, blue-winged and Black-throated blue were found a few days ago, but not on the count. Other prominent misses were rose-breasted grosbeak and screech-owl, both of which have been pretty easy to find on other occasions this spring. Birds seen this year that were missed on prior big days include black vulture, Canada warbler, wild turkey (on nest), and yellow-breasted chat. Now, here is the (unofficial list) for the day. We surpassed last year's tally of 88 species. When all is said and done, I expect that the big day will have raised about $15,000 for trail maintenance and habitat restoration in Glen Helen. Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Black Vulture Canada Goose Wood Duck Mallard Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Wild Turkey Mourning Dove Black-billed Cuckoo Yellow-billed Cuckoo Great Horned Owl Barred Owl Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Yellow-throated Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Barn Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren House Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Eastern Bluebird Veery Swainson's Thrush Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Tennessee Warbler Nashville Warbler Northern Parula Chestnut-sided Warbler Magnolia Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Pine Warbler Palm Warbler Black-and-white Warbler American Redstart Prothonotary Warbler Ovenbird Louisiana Waterthrush Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler Wilson's Warbler Canada Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole American Goldfinch House Sparrow -Nick ------------------------- Nick Boutis Executive Director Glen Helen Ecology Institute 405 Corry St. Yellow Springs, OH 45387 Visit us online, at www.glenhelen.org ______________________________________________________________________ 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]