08 January 2011: On 28 December, the Olmstead CBC failed, for the first time in 18 years, to find Killdeer. Today, Frank Lyne and I spent a couple of hours together looking for the Rough-legged Hawk that he reported earlier this week. We failed to find the bird. We discussed the killdeer miss and discovered that both of us have superficially looked for this normally common species and that neither of us has seen one since the count. Neither did we see one today, despite casually searching. My thinking is simple (like me) and I express it below. . Have others noted an absence of Killdeer since the cold wave arrived around Christmas? . If so, where are they? Pushed further south? Hiding? In some special habitat that we in the Free State of Logan have missed? Anyone have them in abundance? . If this observation is real, it would be logical that this happens every time it gets really cold. Does anyone know if this is the case? I would appreciate a reply by anyone with something to add. Thanks. Mark Mark Bennett Russellville, Logan County benn5609@xxxxxxxxxxxxx