My home, Valhalla Acres Fiber Farm, is home to 2 humans, 26 sheep, 2 goats, 5 horses, one dog and 11 cats (12 if you count the feral mother of two domesticated kittens). It is apparently also home or close to home for 60 bird species seen or heard here by me since dawn on June 21. The grounds consist of 57 acres: 30 acres of upland pastures and successional fields surrounded by forested ravines, with forest ranging from young to mature. It sits on Flint Ridge, which here constitutes the divide between the Licking and Muskingum River drainages. There are no conifers except for a couple stunted, out-of-place cedars, and no pond or other extensive wetlands, although there are farm ponds nearby. The property and immediate vicinity were never mined extensively for coal, and so it is fairly well-watered, with a good, reasonably shallow well, and numerous seeps and springs. Water runs (or at least trickles) year round in the deepest two of the three ravines. We feed black oil sunflower, nyger and suet, and we have a couple hummingbird feeders as well. I consider it to be a very average Ohio Appalachian habitat, and I flatter myself to think that it probably receives better than average observation. The post-solstice "yard" list: great blue heron (somewhat regular overflights) turkey vulture Cooper's hawk red-shouldered hawk (heard daily) red-tailed hawk (regularly soaring) wild turkey (flushed yesterday while I was picking raspberries) killdeer mourning dove chimney swift ruby-throated hummingbird red-headed woodpecker (commoner this year than previous, no nest tree found) red-bellied woodpecker downy woodpecker hairy woodpecker northern flicker pileated woodpecker eastern wood-pewee Acadian flycatcher eastern phoebe eastern kingbird red-eyed vireo blue jay American crow tree swallow barn swallow tufted titmouse Carolina chickadee white-breasted nuthatch Carolina wren house wren eastern bluebird American robin wood thrush gray catbird northern mockingbird brown thrasher European starling blue-winged warbler (I heard yesterday, for the first time in over a month) yellow warbler cerulean warbler American redstart ovenbird common yellowthroat hooded warbler yellow-breasted chat scarlet tanager northern cardinal rose-breasted grosbeak (annually in the woods, this year a regular feeder bird) indigo bunting eastern towhee field sparrow chipping sparrow song sparrow brown-headed cowbird red-winged blackbird common grackle Baltimore oriole house finch American goldfinch house sparrow There are probably a couple others around, such as Louisiana waterthrush, which I regularly hear singing until early June. Currently, for all seasons over 13 years, the "yard list" stands at 137. Nice place! Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Valhalla Acres Fiber Farm Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ 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]