Decided to head south in search of the Yellow-headed Blackbird with my birthday bud, Mark Shaver. Deerfield Ave and Withrich Rd yielded a monstrous mass of blackbirds. We arrived in the morning for attempt #1 and after looking through a few groups that easily totaled 15,000+ we got cold toes and fingers after 30+ minutes. It was difficult as there was a steady stream of birds that browsed the field or continued south and the snow made viewing difficult. After stops at Funk, Kidron and the gravel pits we decided to give it another go around noon-thirty. Numbers were astonishing. I would not be surprised if we looked through nearly 100,000 birds. There were segregated groups in the afternoon. In the trees up Winrich from Deerfield there was a large group of Common Grackles numbering 2,500 easily. The blackbird number was SICK! Mark and I estimated the males outnumbered the females over 500:1. We also identified a dozen-ish Rusty Blackbirds. Many birds were settled in the trees on Winrich (although there continued to be a steady stream of birds that fed in the fields or simply continues south and it didn't slow in the hour+ we were there). We even went 3/4 of a mile down the road to see where the birds were moving to - just a nice stand of trees, but the birds just used it as a stop on their continued course south. In the end, we did not locate any Yellow-headed Blackbirds. With numbers that high there has to be some lost souls, but the task was/will be formidable. buster ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]