We were birding on Fargo Rd. in Carroll Co. this morning and were able to find all our target birds--Henslow sparrows, grasshopper sparrow, dickcissels, & bobolinks--and then some. One of the sparrows I saw has me wondering. I had a pretty good look at it (though I could only see it's head and chest) and I first thought it was a Lark Sparrow. It had a clear breast with a single breast spot and the head pattern was the distinctive patter of a lark sp.--dark mustache, white malar strip, brown cheek, dark line behind the eye, white supercilium and striped crown. But the cheek color was more of a light brown, definitely not the reddish brown of a lark. Looking in my Stokes field guide it looks like a 1st winter bird but this seems too early for that plumage. This bird definitely had no streaking on the breast. As I look through the guide, I see the Clay-colored sparrow has the same facial pattern. I have only ever seen that bird a couple of times and those have been several years ago. Both birds would be rare. Has anyone seen either of these birds there or have a feel for which one it would most likely be? I am leaning towards clay-colored but only because it seems unlikely a lark would be in winter plumage this early in the year. Laura Dornan ______________________________________________________________________ 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]