Greetings birders! It's been quiet, bird-wise, at Slate Run Metro Park (Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks) lately, until yesterday (10/28/10). While doing a tram program with 17 people, a BALD EAGLE juvenile flew right over the tram! Of course bald eagles are not all that uncommon even in Central Ohio, but I still find it neat when I see one in the park I work in! It probably started its Slate Run flying at the Buzzard's Roost Lake, and as it was leaving our vicinity, it headed toward the 156-acre wetlands. 4 BLACK VULTURES and 1 TURKEY VULTURE made a small little kettle over my office in the afternoon. It was great to be able to compare the sizes and coloration with them side by side. A PURPLE FINCH visited the feeders at the naturalist office at about 4:30 p.m. He was bright pink, and was with some house finches so the comparison was easy, like the vultures! BLUE JAYS and CROWS have been everywhere in the park! Must be grouping up to migrate or maybe they're a few that have already come down from the north? The blue jays have really been enjoying the seed we put out at the office lately - it has big nuts and fruit chunks in it. JUNCOS have been here for about 1.5 weeks already! Finally, not bird related but still cool - a FLYING SQUIRREL is living in one of the boxes we put up for the species several years ago! While preparing for a program, I shook the cables of the box, intending to pull it down to check it/clean it out. But before I could even do anything else, the squirrel popped out of the little hole on the box and clung to the tree for about 20 seconds. It really plastered itself to the tree and then finally decided all was clear so it went back in the box! It repeated this "show" during my program 2 days later, so 20 people got to see a flying squirrel in broad daylight! (Yes, I promise not to bother him again!) I have not been out to the wetland lately, so I do not have any duck-related reports for you. Slate Run Metro Park is part of the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks. Get directions and more at http://www.metroparks.net Andrea Krava (formerly Haslage) Slate Run Metro Park Naturalist Reynoldsburg, 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]