Greetings... Much of the West Chester portion of the VOA was mowed sometime 
in late September or October. I'm not sure why, but anyway... Saturday 
morning there were 20+ horned larks and at least one or two American pipits 
in the short grass areas and near the lake. Eastern meadowlarks were still 
easy to find and busy singing, with at least 12. There were 4 coots on the 
lake. I'm not sure how waterfowl will take to the lake, but it's large 
enough and has plenty of fish that it should be suitable unless there are a 
lot of people in the area, which is often the case. The new section of the 
lake was recently planted with grass seed, and should be a good draw come 
late-fall and winter. Might not be any need to chum the roadways with corn, 
like last year.

Gilmore Ponds on Sunday morning was a bit on the slow side, but it was a 
gorgeous day, so who cares. Charlie Saunders and Bob Lacker and I had the 
expected complement of winter sparrows, including juncos, white-throated, 
and white-crowned, swamp and songs; a brown creeper, and a few 
golden-crowned kinglets. The mudflats behind Hamilton Fixture looked pretty 
good, and there were 46 killdeer enjoying the site. No other shorebirds.

As is typical for Butler County parks, there was a sort of Cool Hand Luke 
scene at Gilmore Ponds Sunday morning, with multiple unleashed dogs running 
around and barking and lunging and yelping at anyone out and about who was 
foolish enough to try to enjoy the scenery. However, I was bitten in the leg 
by a leashed dog. Go figure. Adding to the irony, the people running this 
particular set of hounds consider themselves birders. You can't make this 
stuff up, but the owner of the dog that bit me drives around in a car with a 
"Go Vegan" bumper sticker on the back. I guess the poor dog was just looking 
for a little meat and thought he'd take a shot at me. Ah well . . .

Ned Keller, Jay & Jack Stenger, and Joe Bens had a red-necked grebe at East 
Fork Lake State Park on Sunday. You might have seen that on the Ohio-Birds 
list or the Cincinnati site.

Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH