Hi Everyone, I've often thought (and sometimes said) that one of the great things about birding is that normally the worst thing that will happen to you is that you'll have a good walk somewhere. Yesterday and today (Sunday) Beth and I tested that. Saturday, we took a walk through Forest Hill Park, between Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland (where our list is over 70 species). We had a good walk, but we saw not a dingle bird of any species. Today, we walked through Lake View Cemetery, which is bounded by Cleveland Heights, Cleveland and east Cleveland. At first, it looked pretty much the same; we had one flock of American Robins and a few Downy Woodpeckers. Then we saw what we had really hoped for--a Merlin! The bird was high up in a tree in Section 2, right near the road that separates Section 2 from Section 3. We had some very good looks, but we were a little doubtful about the color of the the back, but in the end we think it was a dark female. At one moment the bird treated us to a long vocalization. Best wishes, Steve Cagan Cleveland Heights Cuyahoga County -------------------------------------------- Steve Cagan, photographer [log in to unmask] www.stevecagan.com www.pbase.com/stevecagan 216-932-2753 (USA) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]