At 11:50 a.m., while watching a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows in courtship flight over the gravel pit along Roxanna-New Burlington Road (about a quarter mile east of its intersection with Rte. 42), a large black bird came into my peripheral vision moving south to north between my position and Rte. 42 -- roughly tracking the course of the Little Miami. Raising my binoculars, I noticed the bird was carrying a large stick (!). Wings were long and noticeably tapering. Flight consisted of fairly deep, but not rowing flaps and the bird occasionally interrupted its generally straight-line flight and wingbeats to execute two steep, swept-wing climbs and swoops, all the while continuing north. In all, the bird was in my view for less than 30 seconds before it was obscured by the treetops (flight was rather low - 100-200 feet) and I never could discern tail shape, only length: longer than a crow's. While I am hesitant to definitively ID this bird on this listserv, or log it with eBird, I will say that I have considerable experience with a particular montane corvid from my years in New York's Hudson Valley, and I would not hesitate to GISS it with confidence had I been in Nyack or Rheinbeck instead of Bellbrook. So publicly I'll equivocate, lest this post be judged mere raving, or some craven jest. But the blank space on this birder's Ohio list, "wedged" between American Crow and Horned Lark, will stare emptily at him nevermore. -- Paul Dubuc, Dayton, OH at sign beween pauldubuc and gmail dot com ______________________________________________________________________ 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]