Don Morse, Jr. and I participated on a team to compete in our local bird-a-thon this Friday 5/10 and Saturday 5/11. Our bird-a-thon includes any county that is within a 50 mile radius of the Oxbow in Lawrenceburg, IN. So several counties in OH, IN and KY are fair game. Don and I stayed in Ohio and covered 10 counties (In order of visit - Montgomery, Greene, Warren, Clermont, Brown, Adams, Highland, Clinton, Butler and Hamilton). We would end up with 132 species. We would miss three species that we found while scouting on Friday before the official 5 p.m. start. During this period we had Alder Flycatcher and Blue Grosbeak at Campbell Lakes Preserve (Hamilton Co.) and 2 Bell's Vireos at Kilby Rd. Gravel Pits (Hamilton Co.). Highlights during the Bird-a-thon: Friday 5/10/13: Great Miami Mitigation Bank (Montgomery Co.) - 8-10 Grasshopper Sparrows, 3 Cliff Swallows. Englewood Preserve (Montgomery Co.) - 1 female Gadwall. Dayton Airport (Montgomery Co.) - 3-4 Savannah Sparrows. Caesar's Creek State Park (Warren Co.) - all 3 gulls (several ring-billed, 1 Bonaparte's, 2 Herring) on the beach with 2 Caspian Terns. Spring Valley Wildlife Area south (Warren Co.) - 1 Barred Owl. East Fork State Park (Clermont Co.) - 1 Eastern Screech-Owl. Saturday 5/11/13: Higginsport, OH (Brown Co.) - 1 Barn Owl (at nest), Bald Eagle (on nest). Brush Run Rd. (Adams Co.) - at least 6 Whip-Poor-Wills. Abner Hollow (Adams Co.) - 1 Worm-eating Warbler. Sams Rd. fields at route 753 just east of Rocky Fork Lake (Highland Co.) - at least 8 Henslow's Sparrows. Rocky Fork State Park (Highland Co.) - 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Great Egrets, 8+ Forster's Terns, 2 Caspian Terns, 1 Ruddy Duck, 2 female Lesser Scaup, 1 female Bufflehead, 1 Blackpoll Warbler, 1 Bay-breasted Warbler. New Vienna Rd. (Clinton Co.) - 1 Vesper Sparrow. Spring Valley Wildlife boardwalk (Greene Co.) - 1 Sedge Wren, 1 Swamp Sparrow, 1 Lincoln's Sparrow (adjacent to field near parking lot). Voice of America Park (Butler Co.) - 1 Willow Flycatcher, Bobolink, 2 Least Sandpiper, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Semipalmated Plover. Winton Woods (Hamilton Co.) - 7 Black-crowned Night-Herons at mixed colony, 1 Red-shouldered Hawk. Blue Rock Rd. at Villa Ln. Lark Sparrow site (Hamilton Co.) - 1 Broad-winged Hawk. Kilby Rd. Gravel Pits (Hamilton Co.) - 1 Common Loon (we had 3 birds when we had scouted earlier Friday). David A. Brinkman, M.Ed. 1631 Kellywood Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45238-4011 513-675-8665 (cell) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]