I thought I would mention a few other birds that have been left out of recent posts (as far as I've noticed". The Ottawa drive was really fun for me this year (last year was a bit slow but it was around 1:00 then), this year we made the drive at just before noon. We enjoyed seeing the Yellow-headed Blackbirds as well but also had nice views of a BLACK TERN, flying by that area as well as a couple of COMMON MOORHEN. Also here and further along the road, my group and I heard several MARSH WRENS, plus SORA, VIRGINIA RAIL, and a couple of folks alerted us to an AMERICAN BITTERN on the right side of the road (north) in a closer stand of reeds and cattail. We got out of the car and it jumped up and flew a short distance and landed, I watched carefully for where it landed and luckily it was kindof close and in not too dense of cover. Still it took a minute to refind the bird in my scope when I'd look again after giving others a turn looking through. Some of the people who looked still couldnt see the bird, even tho it was in the center of my scope and hadn't moved, quite the vanishing act these birds can pull off. Pretty neat to watch that amazing camoflage and behavior in action again. A special moment at Metzger marsh was also getting to observe FORSTER'S TERNS, CASPIAN TERNS, COMMON TERNS, and a lone BLACK TERN all standing on a muddy spit of land in one scope-field view. Also fun were the good sized group (10?) of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, and the 20+ AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVERS that were there. Friday I spent a lot of time at Metzger and saw 2 WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS and a male WILSON'S PHALAROPE (couldn't refind saturday), plus the numerous other shorebirds mentioned in other posts (the most Dunlin I've ever seen). Oak Openings was later in the day, around 5-6 pm. Birded mostly along Girdham Road and we found about 3 LARK SPARROWS even though they weren't singing. In the woods behind the dune area on the same road we heard the whispering songs of SWAINSON'S THRUSHES, which was pretty special and added to the northern feel of this special patch of habitat. In the nearby fields close to the Bikepath there, we had great views of an extended squabble between 4 RED-HEADED WOODPECKERs, which was fun to watch. Then we heard the pitti-tuck-tuck of a SUMMER TANAGER from the edge of this field north of the bike path where it crosses Girdham. He wasn't far off so we tracked it down and were treated to stunning views of this extensively red bird in the evening sunlight, really cool. Also here were BLUE-WINGED WARBLER and from the forest a singing YELLOW-THROATED VIREO. No Blue Grossbeaks were heard or seen. Good Birding and happy Mother's Day, - Ben Warner ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. 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]