The highlights this morning at the wetlands were a very cooperative AMERICAN BITTERN and the return of the SHORT EARED OWLS along the Co. line road. The bittern was in the northwest corner of the impoundment stalking frogs in the cat tail stand. At times he was no more than 10 feet from me in the open water, paying little attention to me and continuing the hunt. The closest I've ever been to a bittern during my 36 years of birding! The short eared owls were seen flying with 6 harriers along the Wyandot-Hardin Co. line road. They weren't there at daybrake so I feel I was present when they migrated into the area. A partial list is as follows: Tundra Swan 5 Wood Duck 1 Gadwall 5 Wigeon 8 Black Duck 12 Mallard 190 Shoveler 34 Pintail 26 Green Winged Teal 100 Lesser Scaup 17 Bufflehead 1 Hooded Merganser 2 pair Ruddy Duck 21 Pied Billed Grebe 3 AMERICAN BITTERN 1 Great Blue Heron 5 Turkey Vulture 8 Harrier 14 Cooper's Hawk 1 Coot 280 Killdeer 3 Dunlin 18 Horned Lark 46 E. Bluebird 5 Short eared Owl 8 Pipit 9 Tree Swallow 170 Savannah Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 15 White Crowned Sparrow 2 Junco 2 Lapland Longspur 217 E. Meadowlark 9 Rick Counts Wyandot Co. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]