Wow what a day. After the big rush was over this morning, (and Sean Williams swearing he heard a Cerulean Warbler [I forgot to put my phone on vibrate:-D ]) I snuck away for some much needed Snipe hunting. :-D Found one that I could have reached out and grabbed if I wanted over at the maint. sheds. Also were Green and Blue-wing Teal, Mallards of course, Pin-tail, Am. Wigeon, Ruddys, Ring neck, Hooded Mergs, and Coots were present at pond 27 and CH 71 ponds..I didn't see the Eurasian, but wasn't expecting to...I really need to get a scope...:-D. Drove around the rest of the ponds and saw more of the above. Went to pond 30 and got some excellent shots of a male Ruddy duck. Also a bunch of Ring-necks and a female Ruddy, and a Female Bufflehead were there. BIWA held Pin-tail, Mallards, Ring-necks, Coots and an Egret...Oh my! Then to Cap off the day, when I got home, the sun and the rain was just right! Rainbow in LaRue...made me want to break out my Wizard of Oz movie. ----- A couple of people have asked about the birder count so far for the Hoary. Before today, there were: Birders that were confirmed through email and meet and greet plus me: 36, physical count of others that just showed up: 13...and counting me wife and kids, all three are budding birders, bring the total to 53. Out of all, to my knowledge, only 3 or 4 didn't eventually see her. Both Ben W. and Ken Shepherd made return trips to see her, for Ken it was a lifer. One of the 36 returned and brought a friend. To my knowledge, out of the 53, it was a lifer in some stretch of the term for all but 3...one of the lifers was the guy that really got me into birding. :-D --- Add today another 12 and that brings it to 65. Plus two returns that did not see it the first time, so that knocks that stat down to one or two. People who's lists were improved were increased by 11 I think...I didn't get to talk to the 12th. Tomorrow another 5 are coming that I know of. 116 emails are in my Hoary folder about one thing or another relating to her, I have taken around 600-900 pictures (a lot of deletes)...yeah, I got a little carried away. :-D I actually got a local birder today that was driving by to see what was going on. He is coming back at another time. If anyone came and didn't send an email, and/or if I didn't see you, please send me a quick email telling me time and date, and if you saw her, just so that I can make a record of it. Thanks. It's been the most excitement, save the flooding that we have had in this town in a while. :-D New pics added: http://sjlarue.smugmug.com/Unsorted/OhioBirds/16108559_K6usy Steve J. Psalm 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]