Hello birders and friends, There is only a month to go before the Lakewood Christmas Bird Count on the west side of Cleveland takes place. Sunday, December 30 is our official CBC date with count week sightings from Thurs., Dec. 27 through Wed., Jan. 2. There are many options and areas to cover. We have lots of suburban areas, Cleveland Metroparks land, cemetaries, the Lakefront and more, many of which have dedicated groups that take certain areas. We would love to have new birders, families, and seasoned birders AND we can link people with groups or folks can take an area that is not covered well. Please check the Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society's web page, <http://www.wcasohio.org> www.wcasohio.org and click on either the December calendar or the Christmas Bird Count info. You will see the count circle for our area as well as a list of places that groups cover. Don't forget the chili lunch at the Rocky River Nature Center around noon. At that time we do a preliminary tally of species plus several "species" of chili from mild to wild. Let me know if you would like to participate. Now is the time to bone up on your crossbills, siskin vs. goldfinch, diving ducks, gulls galore, pipit vs. horned lark flight calls, waxwings (look for those Bohemians) ... don't forget the sparrows! Hope to see or at least hear from you! Nancy Howell The Cleveland Museum of Natural History 1 Wade Oval Dr., University Circle Cleveland, OH 44106-1767 [log in to unmask] phone 216.231.4600 ext. 3225 education fax 216.231.9960 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]