Greetings... I've attached a picture of a hatch year eastern screech owl
that ended up in one of Dave Russell's nets Saturday morning. (I also have a
couple of photos that people on the list requested I get them copies of.
Feel free to drop me a line and I'll send them along, as promised...)

I liked reading the chimney swift numbers that Debra Bowles reported to the
list yesterday. I was reminded a few days ago by Larry Rosche of Kent, Ohio,
that the official seal of Kent State University features a chimney swift.
(scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the seal:
http://www.kent.edu/ucm/PoliciesStandards/KentStateSeal.cfm)

According to Kent State "the bird [on the seal], which symbolizes
leadership, is the chimney swift, a species which colonizes on campus and
seems to be in constant flight." (I figured it was a veiled comment on
campus living conditions.) A KSU ornithologist prof. named Dr. Ralph Dexter
conducted a long-term study of the chimney swifts that nested inside the
chimneys of some of the campus's older buildings. They used to have a number
of breeding common nighthawks on campus, but this past year they had but one
pair. I should probably have remembered that bit of swift trivia from
Freshman orientation.

Dave Russell banded a number of gray catbirds Saturday morning, and Bob
Lacker and I had over 24 catbirds around the South Pond area alone of
Gilmore Ponds on Sunday morning. The number of catbirds moving through the
area boggles the mind, at least my easily boggled mind. Little else was
moving Sunday at Gilmore--1 Tennessee warbler, 1 magnolia, 1 red-eyed vireo
and 1 white-eyed vireo.

Monday morning was a little more active. It was also cooler, with a light
wind from the south: 2 Nashville warblers, 1 Blackburnian, 1 redstart, 2
magnolia. There were fewer catbirds around, though. We also saw two Cooper's
hawks, 1 broad-winged hawk, 1 red-tailed hawk, and 2 turkey vultures fly
over. It was a little taste of raptor migration in southeast Butler County.

Take care,
---Mike