Late yesterday afternoon, shortly after dusk (when I checked it was 5:35,) I was hauling the wheelbarrow with the evening manure through the still sloppy mud from the recent rain out to the compost pile. The weather had little to recommend it: gray, overcast, sort of spitting a frozen drizzle. It was one of those chores that builds character (and keeps the barn clean,) and so we persevere. Then I heard a distant hooting. After dumping my load I paused before heading back to the horse barn. Yep! The first great-horned owl of the season was calling. What a delightful evening! Our farm sits on a saddle of the Flint Ridge upland. Examining Google Earth images, or checking the good old-fashioned USGS topographic map reveals that our wooded ravines are a part of a fairly large, roughly 1 1/2 by 3 mile contiguous forest, with a few open spots for agricultural fields, quarries, etc. Almost every winter we hear great-horned owls. I have never seen them. They are somewhere off our property, to the north, but it's sure nice to know they are around. 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]