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From: jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: (OUTDOOR) Little birds, seasons, squirrels...
Message-ID: <3968.27c7d116@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>
Date: 24 Feb 91 19:43:33 GMT
Lines: 38

My wife and I found a lovely little patch of woodsy area quite close
to the campus here at Miami U (no, not that one; the one in OHIO),
and took our dog for a short walk there yesterday (no flames, please,
he's a very good birding dog. No interest in them whatsoever - well,
except for swans, but that's another story...) and saw the usual scads
of woodpeckers

Is SW Ohio known as "Woodpecker Central" or something? I've never lived
anywhere with such a high density of WPs. Pileateds regularly flap
around on and next to campus. It's nice, mind, but I wonder if it's
just that WPs are quite common in the north and I just never noticed.

And cardinals

Most of which were already spectacularly red; must have been a good 
feeding year (much of the color is, as we all know, dietary in origin).

And a small flock of brilliantly blue bluebirds (eastern, of course).
Do they overwinter here? Seems pretty darn early for them, but this 
morning the chickadees were singing, the house finches were singing,
the cardinals were singing; hell, the damn starlings were singing,
sorta. ("SqeeeEEEEK! SqeeEEEEEEdle!") Do they think it's spring? 
Starting to fire up the good ol' territorial imperative? I know the
squirrels are also getting into it, running around all frisky and
collecting leaves for nest linings. Anybody else seeing signs of
spring?

Also, all the birds yesterday continued to scream along even as the
dog went jingling about under the trees, then fell silent as if 
someone had switched off the stereo. A few seconds later, a broad-
winged hawk whooshed overhead. They seem to be the most common buteo
around here, and they're almost ridiculously tame. Is that also common?

Just trying to get some outdoor stuff going, here....

Josh Hayes, Zoology, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056
jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu, or jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
I've sworn off .sigs. No, wait, this is one, isn't it?


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