Hi all, Thanks to Margaret Bowman for posting her observations of today's trip to the Wilds in Muskingum County, and I'll add a few more. About 70 guests and members of the Ohio Ornithological Society and Columbus Audubon spent a fair chunk of the day exploring the place, and in spite of light but steady rain all morning, we found a lot. Thirteen species of waterfowl were recorded, and I was interested to see Donald Morse's note about seeing 30 Snow Geese in Clermont County today. We had a flock of 47 birds late in the afternoon today, comprised of 25 "snows" and 22 "blues". There were also Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck, Mallard, American Black Duck, Canada Goose, Northern Pintail (flock of 22!), Bufflehead, and Ruddy Duck. Raptors are so-so this winter at the Wilds; I suspect the Meadow Vole population is at the bottom end of the cycle. Nonetheless, we had plenty of Northern Harriers and three or so Rough-legged Hawks. The Golden Eagle was seen by a number of us from the large observation deck near the junction of Zion Ridge Rd. and State Route 284, and even more unusual for this site was a subadult Bald Eagle that winged by. Some in my party were treated to good looks of an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk - a very neat bird. Towards dusk, several Short-eared Owls put on quite a show in the fields out front of the observation deck, hunting the grasslands and occasionally battling each other and the harriers. We were even able to hear their curious barking calls from time to time. The Northern Shrike was seen early in the morning at the junction of Zion Ridge Rd. and State Route 146, and at the end of the day Bill Thompson and group had a calling American Woodcock there. This is not our typical January! For more information about the Wilds, go here: http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=2 If you would like to see some photos of the day, go to my blog at: http://www.ohiobirds.org/blog/blog.php Thanks to all who helped with this trip, and everyone who came out and participated! Jim McCormac Columbus, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]