I was able to participate in a very enjoyable and productive block-busting weekend in and around Lawrence County, courtesy of regional OBBA coordinator Brad Sparks (I'd spent the previous weekend in an equally satisfying trip to atlas in Meigs Co, courtesy of Janet DCuerr and Steve Shafer). Ten of us tallied close to a hundred breeding species. Our best find had to be four adult yellow-crowned night-herons at a Gallia County pond, found by Margaret Bowman and Liz Clingman; nesting is of course suspected, and Brad is coordinating a search. Other interesting news comes from OBBA atlasers. Two nests of Bell's vireos discovered in Pickaway County make one wonder how many there may be elsewhere, in addition to the Columbus pair. Troy Shively confirmed another inland-nesting great egret at Indian Lake in Logan Co recently (and there may be more), and a flock of egrets in Union Co is being tracked in case they too are local breeders. Marcia Brehmer's two pairs of great egrets in Franklin Co have returned to nest, and investigations will take place to see if there are additional egrets there, including suspected double-crested cormorants. Such news furnishes a reminder to search heron rookeries with great care. Yes, they are hard to survey, and they reek, but odd nesting species are to be found there. This knowledge is important, too. I'll be reporting soon--few others will, I suspect--on the second year of cormorant 'culling' in the state. It may be only a body count, but maybe some evaluation will be included. In the state of Delaware--where it is too simple, but nonetheless tempting, to regard the controversy as one of fishers vs. birds--it's now OK to resume killing horseshoe crabs because it allegedly won't harm red knots: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070609/ap_on_re_us/horseshoe_crabs;_ylt=A0WTUdZQrGxGHYgAoRas0NUE On the rarity front--and watch the Ohio RBA for more on these--a credible report of a scissor-tailed flycatcher came from Hardin County 8 June, but as usual this rarity promptly vanished from the scene. I mentioned the possible Mississipi kite in Hocking County, but news comes of another last week at Point Pelee. Ontario authorities tell me that Point Pelee has nearly three times as many records of this species as the whole state of Ohio (!), and that they regard most of these birds, like last week's, as *southbound*. Go figger. In Dayton, confirmed new nesting site reports for lark sparrows are very encouraging. The number of reports on this forum has plummeted with spring migration's end. While it's always interesting to hear what's showing up at someone's feeder, or long lists from the Magee Marsh bird trail in May, remember nesting is the only reason for migration. This is what birds live for, and why they undertake these long and perilous journeys. Reports like those above are the icing on the cake, but we need to learn about the reproductive success of even the most common species, and the Atlas is how we do it. Please try to volunteer some time to help to this statewide effort: see OOS web pages at http://www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/ Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]