I returned home Wednesday night from ten days of business in California. I read with great interest about the short-eared owls recently observed on the property (The Defense Supply Center) just south of the Columbus airport, and since we landed around dusk I kept my eyes peeled as we taxied in after landing. I spotted a lone red-shouldered hawk (flap-flap-flap-glide-flap-flap-flap-flap-glide-etc.) cruising across the north runway area, but no owls. At home on Flint Ridge yesterday I was too feeble from a cold and the effects of the flights' pressure changes to venture out much, but this morning, with a clearer head and mind, I took a walk with Jane around the pastures. The woods and ravines are too treacherous at the moment with slick mud, and both of us with gimpy right knees. Male red-winged blackbirds are back and singing. I heard but did not see bluebirds twice during our walk. I didn't try too hard, since (except with lifers) hearing is believing for this birder. I have been seeing (and hearing) a few bluebirds all Winter, and robins from time to time as well. We walked around the "back-forty" successional field, (which reminds me I have to go out and listen for woodcocks this evening) and then the hawk show started. First Jane commented about some distant screams, "That sounds like seagulls." Such remarks remind me that my farmer wife is very observant, but she is not really a birder. Seagulls? (She undoubtedly holds complementary but not complimentary opinions of me as I struggle with remembering the parts of a horse: the stifle, the withers, etc.) Anyway, I thought the calls sounded more like red-shouldered hawks, and I turned to the north and trained my binoculars on three soaring birds, two of them jousting in mid-air, that I took to be a couple males and a female. Yep. Spring is in the air. A few minutes later I saw something swooping along the treetops. A red-tailed hawk. An unexpected hawk trifecta occurred when we were heading home, back at the top of the hill. I saw another bird soaring and flapping against the breeze high over the house or nearby. When I looked through the binoculars I was delighted to see a juvenile northern harrier: orange-ish breast glowing in the late morning sun, slender, unmistakable white rump as it wheeled around: a new yard bird, number 129. Our farm sits on Flint Ridge, literally atop the divide between the drainages of the Muskingum and Licking Rivers. We have no true wetlands, just a lot of mud, since it also sits smack dab on the outcrop of the Middle Kittanning Clay. That's the stoneware clay that provided the raw material for the once thriving ceramic industry in these parts (Roseville, McCoy, Weller, Shawnee, etc.) What is means currently, after the thaw, is many patches of boot-sucking mud. But there are no wetlands or even much wide open ground for the marsh hawks. A few years ago I saw a harrier cruising low over some more open farmland a couple miles west of here, at the Muskingum-Licking County line along Route 40. So, I always maintained that it was possible I might see one at home. This morning, there it was. As for turkey vultures, we have been seeing them off and on all Winter. I think there is enough road-killed deer and such in these parts to sustain them. I remember I saw one on January 18 or 19, a day or two before I left on my previous California trip. Also, I saw two the day after Christmas. It never surprises me any more to see them in Winter here at 40 North... Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ 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]