The Ohio River is rising and the backwater next to the Kraton plant along rt. 618 had a pair of Hooded Mergansers this afternoon. This backwater area usually is home of lots of mallards, Canada geese and Great Blue Herons do it was nice to see something a little different. Not too far away on the railroad trestle next to the downtown bridge to Parkersburg the Peregrine falcons have been present through most of the winter. If you walk across the new bridge in the very late afternoon or early evening you can probably get a very nice close view of one or both of them. In the yard here in Little Hocking I had a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk in the tree by the bird feeder. It was odd to see this big raptor within about 10 feet of all the songbirds while they totally ignored it and continued to work the feeders. I also had a beautiful pair of Fox Sparrows shuffling through the leaves outside the office windows this afternoon. They are in their beautiful breeding plumage. The colors and patterns so bright and clear. The Tufted Titmouse has been gathering horsehair from the nesting material wreath for a couple of weeks now. It was a little surreal to watch it plucking huge beakfuls of hair backlit by the sun with sparkling snowflakes drifting down all around it. The horsehair is leftover shed hair from last year. My old gray horse had to be put down in November so it's his legacy to the birds. The Yellow-throated Warbler will miss his white hair. I guess I'll have to find some other white horses this spring to restock my wreath. Lee Underschultz Firefly Hollow Little Hocking, OH www.fhsigns.com [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]