Well, I think the storm last night blew the Hoary out. I watched from 8-10, along with another local birder, one from Cincinnati, and Ken Shepherd, to no avail. So I guess that it has flown off to parts up north. :-D The local birder thinks he might have seen it but it was in and out so quick that he didn't get a positive ID. I'll keep watching today..since its a nothing happening day for me anyways. I figure that it was at least here a week...maybe longer because I usually by the time check my feeders, everything is nearly done for the day. It was an awesome experience to have that just plop down in my little corner of the world, and I can't help but thank God for it. I joked with Russ Reynolds earlier in the week while we were still trying to figure out if it was indeed a Hoary, that I will get this one real easy, but I'll spend another ten years trying to get a Common :-D. All totaled I think I had about 15-20 different birders here, all but three or four got to see it. I took about 200+ pictures of the darn thing and posted about a third of them. On another note of sorts...the Male House Finches are really really red today, it is almost like a light was turned on over night, must be getting that time of the year again. Could be a different flock of them though, he bird activity today was really heavy at the feeders. Lots of House Finches and Goldfinches, a Song Sparrow, the ever loving House Sparrows and starlings;-D, I still have Juncos coming to the feeder, a couple of sets of Downys, a Red Bellied pops in from time to time. Other first of the year yard birds from the week are cowbirds and Grackles...which reminds me, earlier in the week, we had a white headed Grackle. It came in just long enough for me and another birder to catch, but then it was gone. I talked to a local resident and she said "Oh yeah, we used to feed him over at Kiwanis Village (the retirement village that was flooded) all of the time!" I guess since all of the residents are out of there waiting repairs, the grackles have to go to other sources. I hope to get a pic of it soon. There was something else odd this week, but I forget what it was...just too much going on to remember it all I guess...oh wait, it just landed in front of me (as if on cue,) a female House Finch with a solid white crown on it's top. :-D. I was asked a couple of times if I ever sold any pictures to people, and the answer to that is yes and no. I don't actively sell them...because I just can't devote the time or resources to making prints and selling them. But what I decided to do was to go to Smugmug and open a site so that if anyone wanted a print all they had to do was click the buy button...and I didn't have to do anything in the BG. I set the price really low so that if anyone wanted one, they could afford it, and the printer that I chose is a reputable printer and does a lot of stuff for my personal printing (EZPrints.) Anything I make there just supports the upkeep of the site. So if you see anything you want, go ahead and buy a copy, or just enjoy the views. The print will come without the watermark. Once you navigate to the birds, it is set up sort of like the Field Guides. I only did that to help me in the future to find something. :-D For now the Redpoll pictures and the Royal Tern pictures are still in the unsorted section link that is at the bottom of my post, but I will be moving them over in a week or so...once I get caught up :-D See you out there! Steve J. (aka sjlarue) Hoary Redpoll, and Royal Tern: http://sjlarue.smugmug.com/Unsorted/OhioBirds/16108559_K6usy Rest: http://sjlarue.smugmug.com/Animals 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalms 19.1) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]