Hi all, After realizing last week that my schedule wouldn't allow me to round out January with 100 species, I spent part of the weekend birding near Columbus trying to break 90. And got soooo close! Here are a few highlights from Saturday and Sunday: Saturday at Greenlawn Cemetery I found a very cooperative male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker just north of the pond, and 6+ Pine Siskins in the treetops above. I then headed west to the Rosedale area, and found Lapland Longspurs with Horned Larks on Irwin Rd and Bates Rd., just south of 161. Sunday I headed to Blendon Woods Metro Park where I found the Mute Swan (and a domestic-type Swan Goose) with 200+ Black Ducks and a nice Mallard X Black Duck hybrid. A single Pine Siskin was heard above blinds at the pond, and 23+ cowbirds and a Common Grackle at the visitor center feeders. I stopped at Hoover Reservoir on my way to Highbanks Metro Park. Nothing noteworthy here, but while scanning the waterfowl south of the Sunbury Rd. bridge I spotted a lone coyote that had strolled out onto the ice and was circling the open water looking for a meal. The geese were surprisingly tolerant of the canine and kept their distance, and after a few minutes the coyote gave up, spun around a few times then curled up for a nap. There were also a few dozen Ring-billed Gulls in with the waterfowl, but no other species of gulls were noticed. At Highbanks, I found a cooperative Winter Wren skulking in the tree roots along the river bank and a flock of cooperative E. Bluebirds, but not the Hermit Thrush or Kinglets I was hoping for. I was about to head home when I stumbled across the feeders along the creek near the river, which held two more grackles and my last species for the month: 2 "Red" Fox Sparrows, species number 89: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauljhurtado/5405849602/ Here's a few species I probably shouldn't have missed, or would have likely found had I made it up to the lake shore more than once: Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) Ross's Goose (Chen rossii) Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor) Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) Common Loon (Gavia immer) Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) Iceland Gull (L. glaucoides) Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) Maybe next year! ;) Good birding, -Paul Hurtado ______________________________________________________________________ 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]