I had the pleasure of joining up w/ Rob Thorn, and a group from Columbus Audubon as we went a birding. We actually started out at Alum Creek Res. but it was pretty windy and We saw similar land bird/passerines there that we saw over at Hoover, the only exception being a Sharp-shinned Hawk a couple of us saw fly over. Anywho, we had forgotten today was clean up day at Hoover, but thanks to everyone who did join in on that, whenever I'm out there as Charlie said, I see tons of trash and I try and pick up what I can (sloppy fishermen and boaters). So we hit Oxbow first; Birds seen from Oxbow "island" Yellow Rumped Warblers - seen all over Black-throated Green Warbler - 1 Good job Rob, hearing before seeing and then we all got good looks White-throated Sparrows - good numbers Flickers, Northern - 3 Downy Woodpeckers Ruby-crowned Kinglets D.C. Cormorants Mallards Woodducks - 6 equal parts male to female with one male that looked un-molted a juvenlie? Kinglets House finch E. Phoebe Am Robin Cedar Waxwing - a large flock Bald Eagle - we saw two accross the water from us on the opposite bank Tree Swallows - lots out on the water Kingfisher,belted - 2 etc. Boardwalk = wasn't as windy as last night thank goodness, allowed good views of the shorebirds (I didn't count very well tho, conservative estimates follow) Dunlin - 8+ Long-billed Dowitcher - 4+ Stilt Sandpiper - 6 Greater Yellowlegs - several Lesser Yellowlegs - 10+ Semipalm. Sandpiper - 2+ Least Sandpiper - 2 maybe more Pectoral Sandpipers - 8+ Semipalmated PLOVers - 3 or so Killdeer - 10 or so GBH - plenty to go around Bonaparte's Gull - 2 Ringbilled Gulls N. Shoveler - 4 or so Muscovy duck - 1 odd duck THE HOOVER MEADOWS - We got there and as soon as I pulled in I heard the jays raising a ruckus, apparently mobbing someting in the pines, So I dashed out in pursuit, I found where they had a dense pine fall surrounded and then I saw a large-ish owl fly up from the trees and accross the road, unfortunately all I could tell was that it was an Owl, my impression was Barred Owl but am unsure. We searched the trees but couldn't find any owls, and again I searced at the end. There was plenty of sparrows to be seen here, but alas, I searched and called in vain for any ammodramus rarities, still a decent sparrow list; Golden-crowned Kinglet - lots Ruby-crowned King - less but still plenty Am Goldfinches Eastern Bluebirds - saw about 6 or more foraging for berries and such Yellow-rumps N. Cardinals C. Chickadees Tufted Titmice House Wren - also saw one over at Oxbow Carolina Wren - 3 Winter Wren - 1 really close up veiw of the cute little dude in the thicket Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy N. Flicker E. Towhee - a nice male and a glimpse of a female Junco - 1 juvenile White - crowned sparrow - most haning out by the feeders in the backyard near the entrance White-throated Sparrow - all over Song Sparrow - good numbers 10+ Swamp Sparrow - saw quite a few, at least 10+ Lincoln's Sparrow - 5 or so, very pretty Field Sparrow - plenty of these around as well 10+ Chipping Sparrow - a good sized flock, plus several loaners (and house sparrows) INDIGO BUNTING - a surprise find at the end (p.s. it wasn't very blue ;-) ) Grey Catbird - 1 N. Mockingbird - 1 or maybe two Mallard - 1 GBH - a couple Red-tailed Hawk - 2 Cooper's Hawk - 1 Turkey Vulture - several Well I'm probably leaving some stuff out but oh well. I wore my MIAMI REDHAWKS (what is a redhawk ;-) ? ) t- shirt in solidarity or whatever w/ our new list sponsor (of course no one really knew since I was layered over it so heavy) but I knew. haha. This is not a test, this is for real tho'. Bird on, Ben Warner ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS