(For those who prefer the short version, at the end of this account there is a list of the 46 species I personally saw 12-15-12.) I spent a remarkable day yesterday with new friends. I had a delightful time participating in the Buckeye Lake CBC, and I would like to thank Jeffrey White for organizing and compiling the results of this effort. I am sure he will have further details at some point (It must be quite a task!) but I will share some of my experience, and my own sightings. I had the remarkable good fortune of being “assigned” to a car driven by Steve Williams and occupied by his partner for the CBC, Mitch Lynd. Mitch is a six-generation fruit grower, well-known in Licking County and the surrounding area, and a veritable fountain of birding knowledge, local geographical competency, and historical anecdotes. He was our “guide” and “secretary” for this CBC effort, directing us to a myriad of pre-scouted hotspots and locations, and navigating the maze of residential development and associated waterfront access points along the north shore of Buckeye Lake. There were not really enough participants for this CBC (Can there ever be enough for such endeavors?) so we covered a large and wide east-west swath across the 15-mile diameter circle from the morning feeder birds in the Loan Oak sub-development in Amsterdam (SE Licking County,) to the mid-day survey around the north shore of the lake, to the afternoon visit to the Hebron Fish Hatchery and transects around the rural till plains in the western sector of the circle. Aside from a snipe, we found nothing that was truly startling. (List follows the account.) But there were a few notable delights. You know, a good day birding! Three mockingbirds around the crabapples and similar fruits in the eastern sub-developments were sort of noteworthy. The loon at the lake was “voice only” but unmistakable. As we were leaving one of the shoreline access points we heard it and remarked almost in unison, “Hear that? A loon, isn’t it?” The bird obliged us with a second confirming cry. While watching a small skein of Canada geese snake along the sky above the lake, I noticed that the next to last goose of the dozen or so birds appeared smallish. Fixing my binoculars on it, I saw that it was a single white-phase snow goose flying with this flock. Alex, Mitch’s grandson had gone ahead of us directly to the Hebron Fish Hatchery after another obligation earlier in the morning, and he called Mitch’s cellphone to report a very long-billed shorebird. He also announced that a snow goose had just flown in with a flock of a dozen Canada geese, a half hour after we saw them headed that way. We suspected a snipe, and sure enough, when we joined Alex and walked the dikes around the ponds, the same single bird flushed from the marsh-grassy bottom of one of the drained impoundments, and fluttered characteristically and erratically away. For me, this recalled a time in late January about ten years ago when I saw a similar snipe-woodcocky avian flutter across nearby I-70 in front of my car on a gray late-January afternoon. At the time, I thought that bird might be a very early woodcock, but now I think it is more likely that it was a snipe. Funny how what goes around comes around, and life is for learning. At the southern edge of the hatchery property we spotted a great-horned owl perched along the back margin of the woods. Blue jays noisily announced its presence, but the owl seemed unconcerned. We actually saw a snipe and a horned owl before we saw our day’s first red-tailed hawk! Hawks in general were rather scarce, with only two red-shoulders, only two kestrels (where they should be common) and a hand-full of red-tails. Alex saw large numbers of brown creepers in the woods south of the hatchery, along with other of the woodland parid complex, but by the time we joined him there inactivity among the “dickey birds” had set in. We thought perhaps the owl’s presence and the gray conditions of the impending light drizzle had suppressed the action. Half-expected noteworthy misses: cedar waxwing, duck species other than just the few seen, northern harrier, hairy woodpecker, blackbirds(!), horned lark, towhee, white-crowned sparrow, tree sparrow. My own list for the day: (46 species) Common loon Horned grebe Pied-billed grebe Great blue heron Mute swan Canada goose Snow goose Mallard Northern shoveler Ring-necked duck Ruddy duck Cooper’s hawk Red-shouldered hawk Red-tailed hawk American kestrel American coot Wilson’s snipe Ring-billed gull Herring gull Mourning dove Rock pigeon Great horned owl Belted kingfisher Red-bellied woodpecker Downy woodpecker Northern flicker Pileated woodpecker Blue jay American crow Tufted titmouse Carolina chickadee Red-breasted nuthatch White-breasted nuthatch Carolina wren Eastern bluebird American robin Northern mockingbird European starling Northern cardinal White-throated sparrow Song sparrow Dark-eyed junco House finch Pine siskin American goldfinch House sparrow --- Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. 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