A late report about a late occurrence - On Friday morning I was running the sheep through the foot bath, a trough holding a solution of zinc sulphate for treating against fungus. (I know, TMI.) Anyway, each pair of wooly ones stands in this bath for a few minutes, and the whole process takes over an hour for our 26 sheep. All of us, the sheep, goats and I are kind of used to the process by now, and so there are few handling issues as they file through the equipment and exit into the pasture. The result is many minutes of farm and wildlife observation time. It can be very peaceful, one of the delights of farming. In this case, it was also a beautiful morning. Our farm is blessed or cursed by a starling or two that mimic the call of the meadowlark rather well. For the past month every "meadowlark" have checked with my binoculars has turned out to be a starling. In reaction reminiscent of "the boy who cried "wolf"" I will admit I had stopped checking. But as I stood there on Friday, tending the sheep, two blackbirds flew into the nearby spreading ash tree and started "talking" to each other. They traded fours for a while before the sounds started to register through my meditative mood. "Hey! Every sound they are making says meadowlark." I picked up my binoculars, hung on a nearby fencepost, and confirmed the fact. Yep, two meadowlarks. It seems a little late in the season, November 25, so I decided to report. Yesterday afternoon at dusk (5:30-ish) a killdeer was calling through the rainy, gray skies. 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]