This morning at 7:30 an appropriately-name winter wren appeared around the water buckets (heated) in our sheep barn, (Hopewell Township, western Muskingum County.) It was 2 degrees F (above zero.) I have seen this species here before, but not often in our 17 1/2 years of residence, and never in the barns before. So far, in 2018 the deep cold has provided large visitations of feeder birds, mostly the sixteen expected species. The lowest temperature we have seen here is 5 below F, yesterday morning. We feed black sunflower, nyger thistle, and suet. Woodpeckers: downy, hairy, red-bellied Sparrows: song, white-throated, tree, juncos, house House finch, goldfinch Bluejays, cardinals, mourning doves Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch One fox sparrow and one towhee also put in appearances yesterday. Crows are flying overhead. --- Palm warbler (12/29/17): Thanks to all of you who wrote to me and let me know that palm warbler could possibly occur at my location on December 29. I heard from several folks who offered anecdotes of palm warblers and other hardy warbler species who have turned up this time of year. I will admit, this was a first for me, (a December warbler other than a yellow-rumped,) and once the temperature again plummeted and the farmyard was blanketed thoroughly with 3-plus inches of snow that fell overnight covering all possible grassy edges where I saw the bird, I have not seen it return. Details of the sighting: Previously, the cold snap, temperatures as low as 3, had frozen the ground like a rock, with only a light dusting of snow. The deep freeze brought birds that I had previously seen in the fields and forest to the feeders. We have plenty of goldenrod and other weeds that seem to sustain birds like juncos, white-throated sparrow and tree sparrows until the ground freezes hard. And this year is no exception. There was only a junco or two under the feeders until temperatures fell dramatically over Christmas weekend. Now there are plenty of these birds, and the snow cover makes it even more so. On December 29 it got up to 22 mid-afternoon, and there were exposed areas of ground and grass around darker areas and objects, where the dusting of snow had disappeared or never covered completely. I had heard Carolina wrens bursting with song on December sunny days ("the loudest small bird in the forest" I have told people more than once) and they sometimes come around our barns and outbuildings to pick out spiders and other tidbits from the eaves and corners. And so this was my initial reaction to the bird gleaning along the sidewalk outside the kitchen. I said to myself (actually out loud... I do this,) "Oh look, a Carolina wren." But the shape wasn't quite right. The bill wasn't quite right. And it was pumping its tail, not incessantly, but definitely it was pumping its tail, more than a wren usually does. It did not move quite like a wren. As mentioned, I was in the kitchen, the best place to watch our feeders and surroundings. I grabbed my binoculars from the kitchen table where I generally keep them, and I focused on the stranger, only twenty feet away outside the northside window, gleaning like a warbler from the grass and earth along the edge of the concrete sidewalk. When it turned away from me I saw the yellow coverts, the only yellow I saw on the rather dull bird. And I went through my mental checklist of what it could be. "Winter... Yellow... Siskin?" No, the pattern wasn't right, and the behavior wasn't right. The dark eye-line and the lighter supercilium were obvious, one of the reasons I first thought "wren." But it had a lightly streaked breast, unlike a Carolina wren, and the beak wasn't right either. What's that? A slightly rufous crown? What?! PALM WARBLER! I ran to grab my tattered copy of Sibley from the living room bookshelf, along with my SLR camera from the top of the piano in the music room, then dashed back to the window. These actions took me only fifteen seconds, even on my bad knees. The bird was still there. "Drat!" (or something to that effect...) The battery was too low on my "good" camera. So I resorted to 9 shots with my iPhone. The bird was noticeably less robust than a song sparrow a couple feet from it on the ground. After a full two minutes of observation, I fumbled with my Sibley trying to find the right page, and the bird flitted away to the woods nearby, along with a scramble of juncos from under the feeder. I will admit I did not notice definitively if the bird displayed any white margins on its tail. I lost sight of it in the dried pokeberry and forest litter past the picket fence. And although I stood there for ten minutes it did not return. So, upon considerable reflection and review I have concluded that it could not have been anything other than a palm warbler. Unfortunately, my iPhone photos provide no help. Too blurry. I am a professional skeptic. (Actually true.) Those who know me know that I am not prone to sensational claims. I saw this bird clearly and observed it very well, particularly once I realized its significance. I used 8x binoculars from twenty feet away. I have a lifetime of experience with nature, including birds, since my youth. I have been engaged more or less in the hobby of listing since I turned 40 in February 1994. I may finally relent and make an ebird report, just so it gets into the record that many follow these days. I also will submit this sighting to The Cardinal, which I still regard as the publication of record. Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ 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]