I birded in Ashtabula Co. today from about 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM.  It rained almost constantly during that time.  Of course, the sun came out in the afternoon after I started driving home.  I started in the morning at Conneaut harbor.  Highlights there were: Canada geese w/young, an imm. common loon, double-crested cormorants, great blue heron, 20 turkey vultures, 2 bald eagles, 20 semipalmated plovers, spotted sandpipers, lesser yellowlegs, least sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers, 11 short-billed dowitchers, 5 imm. great black-backed gulls, 28 Caspian terns, 65 common terns (my best ever Spring count there), belted kingfisher, 2 willow flycatchers, bank and barn swallows, 7 gray catbirds, yellow warblers, c. yellowthroat, and Baltimore orioles.  I then headed to Ashtabula; at the State Route 11 / E. 21st St. exit a peregrine falcon flew overhead.  Next I went to Indian Trails Park @E.24th St. entrance.  There is a trail that goes right to a wetland improvement project, with a boardwalk right over a corner of the wetland.  There is very good habitat here, found were wood duck, mallards, greater yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs, 7 least sandpipers, warbling vireo, tree swallow, and more.  This is definitely a spot to keep an eye on during Spring migration; the shorebird habitat might get even better if some of the water evaporates during the summer.  My last stop was at Walnut Beach.  I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the forest of phragmites had been mowed and probably chemically treated as well (there were no green shoots coming up).  So once again there is quality shorebird habitat there!  Birds encountered there included killdeer, least sandpipers, 2 short-billed dowitchers, common tern, warbling vireo, ruby-crowned kinglet, northern waterthrush, Am. redstart. yellow warblers, song sparrows, and a white-crowned sparrow.  On the way home (still in Ashtabula Co.) I saw a wild turkey in North Kingsville and an e. meadowlark (but no bobolink or upland sandpiper) at State Route 193 / Stollaker Rd. area of Denmark Twp.  Craig Holt, Lowellville

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