Six hours at The Wilds failed to turn up the reported golden eagle, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. I met a couple of birders who had come down from Cleveland to search for it, too, and we exchanged cell phone numbers. I never got a call, so I assume that they came up empty as well. I did have 7 rough-legged hawks: 4 light morph, 3 dark. Also several kestrels, lots of red-tailed hawks, two northern harriers. A couple of the ponds are still un-iced, and had a few mallards, a couple gadwall, about 50 ring-necked ducks and a few lesser scaup. I had about 20 Canadas fly over, with no obvious snows, cacklers, etc. Also, 5 swans, also fly-overs, probably trumpeters. Other than a few American tree and song, there weren’t many sparrows. Of interest – to me – were at least 21 cardinals all feeding together in the grass to the south of International Drive near Route 284. When I got there around 9, I counted 16. Later, I counted 18. On my final run along International Drive, I counted 21 and there could have been more. I don’t know what they were finding to eat, but they stuck around that same area all day. There weren’t any other species feeding with them, as far as I could tell. Had hoped for that golden eagle as a Christmas present, but I’ll have to put it on the list for Santa next year. Happy birdy Christmas, Margaret Bowman Licking Co., OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]