Just heard from Bill Jones, who reminded me that southbound least sandpipers, yellowlegs, and killdeers showed up today at the Mahoning Co. fish farm he's made into a shorebird sanctuary. Just about now, many North American shorebirds begin abandoning their precocial young in the Arctic, and return south to the wintering grounds. The young will follow, in some species lagging nearly two months behind the old birds. Most shorebirds we'll see here in the near future will be in worn plumage, bleached and battered. Next will be waves of the first juveniles, in fresh and often very different plumage (one thing that makes shorebirds challenging is so many species have three distinct sets of feathers). We'll also start to see adults of some species that have molted into winter feathers before they reach our latitude, and a few that are in mid-molt. It's pretty complicated, but we are at the beginning of the period when shorebirds are most numerous. We are also entering their period of maximum variety in Ohio. In spring, many species---stilt and western and Baird's and buff-breasted sandpipers, the godwits, and others--hurry hormonally north in a narrow migration corridor well to our west, mostly unseen by us. Beginning now, we'll see a lot more of them, as they spread out and proceed at a more leisurely pace. Whimbrels, for example, streak through Ohio in a matter of days in spring; in fall, they may hang around for weeks if the habitat's right. It's also a better time for rarities, as inexperienced birds stray far off the normal routes. So, if you're lucky enough to have a patch of shorebird habitat nearby, enjoy..... Bill Jones describes his successful labors to make a shorebird haven near Youngstown in the spring issue of The Ohio Cardinal, now in preparation. 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]