Spent the morning in Muskingum County working two OBBA blocks that encompass the Powlson WA. Great habitat; I'll go back after my OBBA work, for sure. I had 59 species, including some surprises. Seen were: great blue heron Canada goose - with goslings turkey vulture red-tailed hawk wild turkey ruffed grouse - hard to spot, but I suspect fairly common killdeer rock pigeon mourning dove yellow-billed cuckoo - two observed, too early to count chimney swift red-bellied woodpecker downy woodpecker northern flicker pileated woodpecker - gave a great show! eastern wood-pewee Acadian flycatcher willow flycatcher eastern phoebe northern rough-winged swallow bank swallow - 5 by Muskingum River, dark breastband obvious barn swallow house wren (possibly a marsh wren, but I'm not certain enough to count it. Heard it once; never saw it. Didn't even know there were cattails until I got out of the car to investigate. It wouldn't pish up and I don't have a tape to draw it out. Intriguing!) gray catbird northern mockingbird brown thrasher eastern bluebird wood thrush American robin blue-gray gnatcatcher Carolina chickadee tufted titmouse blue jay - with fledged young! American crow - with fledged young European starling house sparrow white-eyed vireo American goldfinch yellow warbler - many prairie warbler - one cerulean warbler - at least 5 singing males observed American redstart ovenbird Kentucky warbler - this area must suit these - 6 observed common yellowthroat hooded warbler scarlet tanager - many males singing on territory eastern towhee chipping sparrow field sparrow song sparrow northern cardinal rose-breasted grosbeak indigo bunting red-winged blackbird eastern meadowlark common grackle brown-headed cowbird Baltimore oriole My father (age 91) told me an interesting story about Powlson (which he pronounces Paulsen). During the Depression, each fall he and my grandfather hitched two teams and wagons, and went to Powlson Coal Company, near Zanesville, to get coal. It was fairly low-grade and cheap, each wagon-load costing a dollar. This was enough coal to get the family through the winter. (My father went owling with me in March one night, and one of the places we hit was Powlson WA.) The WA is fairly small, compared to others in the area such as Tri-Valley or Woodbury, but the trees seem more mature. Does anyone know when it became a wildlife area, or anything about its history? It has some wet areas, a couple of small cattail marshes, and lots of large oaks and maples, as well as tulip poplar and sycamore. Unlike the others, I didn't see any grasslands. What grass there was being cut today for hay - no grassland birds at all. Margaret Bowman Region 60 Coordinator, OBBA II ______________________________________________________________________ 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]