Hello Everyone, If, like me, you've often spent time in the field trying to identify fledgling birds, you might find the latest post to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory's Bird Bander's Blog particularly interesting. It provides great photos along with information on molt, feather structure, and other nifty tidbits about challenging juvenile bird identification. http://bsbobirdbander.blogspot.com/2010/08/summer-fledgling-photo-album.html The Observatory's Window on Wildlife (at the address below) provides a perfect scenario for studying a nice variety of fledglings. We've had several species visiting our water feature, located just a few feet away from the large, one-way coated window, allowing close studies and photos. In the past few weeks we've seen neat birds like: Prothonotary Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Cedar Waxwing, Brown Thrasher, Red-eyed Vireo, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, joining the throngs of Red-winged Blackbirds, Mourning Doves, and American Goldfinches, all coming to visit the waterfall. We're currently open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. So, if you can't get down to Lancaster tomorrow for the Mississippi Kite extravaganza (see Jim McCormac's blog for more details), http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/2010/08/mississippi-kite-nest.html come visit us in the swamp and we'll spend some time studying (tongue in cheek, here) boring, run-of-the-mill, common fledgling birds like blackbirds, cardinals, robins, and goldfinches, not to mention the astonishing gymnastic feats of Percy: the world's most flexible squirrel. ; ) Wherever you go to enjoy birds this weekend, I hope you'll consider inviting a friend whose new to birding. Have fun, Kimberly Kaufman Executive Director Black Swamp Bird Observatory 13551 West State Route 2 Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449 419-898-4070 www.bsbobird.org www.ohioyoungbirders.org www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.org Become a fan of BSBO on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/bsbobird Follow BSBO on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bsbobird ______________________________________________________________________ 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]