I took the kids out after the ball drop, against my wife's furrowed brow. Hoped to start with an owl this year. Amid a lot of whining and complaining about the cold, we heard, at 12:55 AM..... CANADA GOOSE. Honk. Nuts. Lots of "shooting stars" though (five in the hour we were out under the stars) -- wasn't aware of any meteor showers predicted, but that was MUCH more than I'd have expected to see. Any owl watchers out there --- do you do best right before dawn, or is there any rhyme/reason to the timing? I can't leave any of the expected owls off the year list this year!! My wife, by the way -- she's always right....the night ended poorly, with the kids in mutiny, and us not speaking to each other (OK, they were asleep in their booster seats...) Scott Hannan whipped spouse of non-birder :-) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]