Good morning, After several years of living in Ohio and searching for but missing the Golden-winged Warbler, my hopes of seeing one had begun to diminish because it's T-minus-12 days till my family and I move out to Las Vegas. Naturally, I was very excited last night see Jeff Grabmeier's report of a Golden-winged Warbler at Highbanks, so drove up there early this morning banking on the rain holding him there instead of continuing on his migration. This time I didn't come away empty-handed. At 6:45am, I began walking in the pouring rain along the section of the pet trail where it was reported previously (near the 90-degree northward bend in the trail by the entrance road). I did hear a complex buzzy call that I had never heard before (it wasn't the typical zzz- buzz-buzz-buzz song), but couldn't locate it's source. Eventually, after traversing that section of trail multiple times, I heard the call again and saw a beautiful male Golden-winged Warbler feeding in the shrubby trees. Having located him, I was able to watch him for about half an hour at close range, as he fed on caterpillars and insects, often shaking off the rainwater from his back but clearly not bothered by the precipitation. Doug Cook soon came along and we were able to admire this rare bird together for a while...a lifer for both of us. Too bad for the rain, cuz Doug probably could've gotten some great pictures of it. Other birds I saw along the pet trail include: Yellow-rumped Warblers (~20) Palm Warbler -1 Nashville Warbler -2 Black-throated Green Warbler -4 Hooded Warbler -1 Warbling Vireo -1 Scarlet Tanager -1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher -1 Eastern Bluebird -2 Brown Thrasher - 1 Northern Flicker -2 Red-bellied Woodpecker -1 Downy Woodpecker -1 plus Cardinals, chickadees, titmice, towhees, Blue Jays, white-throated sp, song sp, field sp, R-w Blackbirds, cowbirds Great way to start the day! Good birding, 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]