The sudden drop in temperatures over the past two days combined with the three inches of blowing snow has had the expected result, but sometimes it's nice to see that expected result. Ground feeding sparrows (junco, tree, white-throated) have joined the crowds around our feeders in impressive numbers. We see a few even during warmer winter temperatures, but they arrived in numbers with the re-arrival of winter. Jane and I added a pair of feeders seen through our north-facing picture window of the kitchen, and so now we have birds on three sides during breakfast. This makes it difficult to come up with real numbers, but what the heck... For reference, we feed black oil sunflower, nyger thistle, and suet. I would say around fifty juncos are frequenting the area now, with 15 tree sparrows and half a dozen white-throated sparrows. These join our usual mix of dozens of goldfinches and house finches, quite a few house sparrows (although fewer than the finches,) a few song sparrows, a dozen or more cardinals, along with common appearances by the expected chickadees (Carolina at this latitude), titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers. During January we were getting visits from a flicker or two, but I haven't seen them the past couple days. An few blue jays swoop in to stir things up now and then. A Cooper's hawk cruised through the area yesterday afternoon. I didn't see it take anything although I have in the past. The one real difference is that a flock of cowbirds arrived yesterday morning, joining the always-present starlings or at least sharing the space. These are the first cowbirds I have seen here in 2016. My high count, between feeders and the nearby maple tree, was 23. Waiting and watching for others... Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ 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.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]