Northern Mockingbirds

This morning while I was walking Angel around the neighborhood I noticed a bird that I hadn't seen around here before. There were two of them, and I got a good, fairly close look at them perching from several different angles and also in flight. I assume they were a pair, as they followed each other around in flight. I got back home and looked it up in my field guides, and they were indeed Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos). Northern OH is within their summer range according to Sibley and the National Geographic field guide (5th edition), though Peterson does have their year-round range going all the way up to Lake Erie.

I find it odd that a bird which I've seen only very rarely around here was overwintering in a suburban neighborhood. I emailed my grandparents to see if they'd ever seen mockingbirds at their feeders, and they said that they haven't.

Perhaps they were just vagrants, but I also wouldn't be surprised if their range is shifting northward.