I just returned from a delightful morning doing OBBAII work in "the other" Amish country - much like Holmes County but without the traffic or commercialism - eastern Knox Co., north of Bladensburg.

I watched a pair of red-headed woodpeckers feeding recently fledged young.  We have a LOT of red-headed woodpeckers in northern Licking and southern Knox counties (at least five different locations today in just this one block), and I think the reason is probably the large number of standing dead trees.  BTW, it's pretty typical for me to find this number of red-headed woodpeckers in the blocks I've surveyed.  They are thriving here.

On the other hand, the Amish in many places - this block was no exception - put out gourds and martin houses.  The numbers of purple martins probably numbered in the hundreds this morning.  What I didn't see, and expected, were kestrels.  Maybe it was just bad luck, but I usually have at least one kestrel in any block in farming country.  

I had 54 countable observations this morning, plus a few OS/PO for post-safe date species such as tree swallow, common grackle and red-winged blackbirds.  

Margaret Bowman
Licking and Knox Counties, OH

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