I notice the most recent report of the Harris's sparrow at Pickerington Ponds came from Monday, and there may be more. This lengthy stay, continued since New Year's Day, is a local record as far as I know, and if there is a longer one elsewhere in the state, I'd love to hear about it. Certainly the careful attentions of the Metro Parks staff to keep its favorite feeders filled has helped a lot. There are at least 15 records for Franklin County, including the state's first, a bird collected from a flock of five or six found two miles north of Columbus on 4/28/1889. A few may show up in fall, and more numerous later records extend into late May; one was present near Greenlawn Dam on 5/6 in 1995 in full breeding array. Only two sparrows among the forty-some on the US list nest entirely outside the Lower 48; this, and the American Tree Sparrow, breed very far north. Harris's winters mostly in the central states, and seldom gets this far east. It will be interesting to see how long its pampered treatment will keep it with us this year. Bill Whan ______________________________________________________________________ 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]