Thought I'd try to make something relevant and possibly useful from eight days of lounging at the beach in S. Carolina, by passing along some observations of migrants that undoubtedly had earlier passed through Ohio, or at least our latitude. A broad SC beach with barrier dunes has a fairly narrow spectrum of migratory species during the second and third weeks of October. Southbound ospreys were strikingly prominent, and nearly constantly visible over the surf and offshore for a few hundred meters. Kettles of 10+ ospreys were often noted over the ocean, though most straggled by singly or in smaller numbers. Overall they outnumbered birds like brown pelicans and herring and ring-billed gulls during my stay. Apparently a bald eagle was also aware of this; posted nearby, it stole fishes from ospreys pretty much at will. The osprey migration has tailed off in Ohio, but seems to be peaking in SC, where a coastal route seems to be preferred. Southbound butterflies were abundant over the dunes: most numerous were Gulf fritillaries, followed closely by monarchs, then many long-tailed skippers, plus good numbers of buckeyes and large sulphurs I didn't get a good look at. Tree swallows were numerous, zipping in small numbers over the dunes, and in churning flocks of thousands further inland over marshes and even human neighborhoods. They were not obviously moving south. Many seemed to be eating wax myrtle berries, to which they resort when insects are scarcer; their fruit diet perhaps accounts in part for this having the longest Ohio season among the swallows. Migrant shorebirds were scarcer than usual on the beach for this time of year (no piping plovers seen, and only two willets in eight days!). Fifteen species (twelve of them winter residents) were found, mostly in the marshes, where their overall and even relative abundance is almost impossible to judge. There, two Ammodramus sparrow October migrants (and local winter residents)--Nelson's and salt-marsh--had joined the resident seaside sparrows. Over the ocean I saw no northern gannets, and only a couple of jaegers. Herring and ring-billeds constituted a small proportion of the gulls present, and apparently usually arrive later in the month. Migrant waterfowl were very scarce: I saw a single ruddy duck, and a flight of five scoters, probably black scoters, the whole time. No ducks were found in the marshes either, and apparently they are not in SC yet. That few ducks had arrived was clear on 16 Oct when I visited Merritt Island NWR in Florida. One of my favorite spots, this is a major wintering area for huge flocks of ducks, but an hour of birding productive marshes yielded only ONE duck species--a few hundred of the resident mottled ducks. Nevertheless, I dropped a double-sawbuck into the donations pylon at the beginning of the wildlife drive. I look forward to reading what others have had to say about the migration here while I was gone. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]