Our Calliope has appeared this am. Yesterdays behaviors includes; episodes of preening, courtship practice runs that allowed to us to observe his accent up to 70 or so feet then diving back down to arise again for another run. He continues to feed frequently at both feeders now and is expanding his territorial presence in our yard. For the past two days he aggressively chases and stands his ground in the honey locus, which up until now has been the neighborhood hang out for the chickadees, morning doves, nut hatches, various woodpeckers, among others, to await my daily feeding service. He also seems to be feasting in delight on the many flying insects that do not elude his presence. At on point and time he easily remained perched on the wire and would flick his tongue as the insects entered his terrain. Needless to say he is where the food and shelter are plentiful. Why leave? Now that is the ultimately question. I continue to gather data on behavior patterns and environment conditions as he remains. This valuable data hopefully will allow us in the future to be better stewards and a catalyst for this species survival and for all our avian neighbors. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]