My thanks to all of you who responded with tips about Killdeer Plains and Short Eared Owls! My first visit to this absolutely *amazing* place did not disappoint! I'll be going back there---soon. Despite the fact that there were many people *killing deer* at Killdeer today, which made for rather skittish wildlife (and punctuated my otherwise serene wilderness experience with gunfire), I managed to see some amazing birds, especially raptors, and secured three lifers, Tundra Swan, Northern Harrier, and yes(!), Short Eared Owl. All that was missing (from my mental list of hoped-for birds) was Rough Legged Hawk. The Harriers were the dominant presence today, all over the wildlife area---I sighted eleven, only one of which was a mature male. (I wasn't able to distinguish the females from the juveniles.) I expected to be impressed by their hover-hunting, but I was astounded to see how controlled their flight was---that they "hit the brakes," as it were, so quickly, transitioning from rapid forward flight to a dead standstill hover in a split-second. A couple of Kestrels (so much larger than their diminutive size, aren't they?) did a bit hover-hunting, too. There was nothing doing (to my inexperienced eyes anyway) in the Owl Pines; perhaps it's still a bit early in the season for that area? On a field off of 294 just east of Harpster, I spotted three Bald Eagles, two juveniles and one adult. I've seen many Baldies, but always either in flight or in trees, and always near a body of water; seeing them on the ground in the middle of a barren field like this struck me as unusual. I arrived in the park before dawn and found no Short Eared Owls (neither at the Sportsman's Center nor on Washburn Rd, where they'd recently been sighted); for that treat, I had to wait until dusk, as several listmembers suggested. I staked out the Sportsman's Center from about 4:15 to 4:40, but finally decided to drive around the park---there were several hunters still active near the Center, and I feared that would mean that this location (despite its reputation for SEOs) was a wash; I ended up seeing two owls coursing the fields on the north side of 71 just east of 108 at about 4:45. They fluttered about quite close to the road allowing for some very good looks. At one point a Harrier engaged one of the owls in aerial combat and then fled the scene. One of my most memorable birding experiences, to be sure! Overcast skies and moderate snow made for less than ideal photography conditions (even in mid-afternoon light, to say nothing of dusk), but I did manage to document the most exciting birds of the day---I've posted some pics here: http://ncomet.mezoka.com/index.html (Forgive the grain in the some of the images; I really had to boost the ISO in order to keep an acceptable shutter speed.) Best, Noah ______________________________________________________________________ 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]