Sorry for the late post. Jeremiah Roth & I visited a number of areas in search of shorebirds along the western side of the state Saturday. Medusa Marsh does not have any mudflat habitat yet, but there were at least 100 Great Egrets in the main impoundment. Also seen was a Black-crowned Night Heron. Our next stop was Metzger Marsh. The extensive mudflats that were there in May are now overgrown with vegetation. The only water there is concentrated along the dike, and there was no mudflat habitat suitable for shorebirds. Highlights included 6 juvenile Bald Eagles along the shore. A quick visit to Magee Marsh yielded no shorebirds as well. Highlights included Bobolinks, Marsh Wrens, Swamp Sparrows. Our final destination was Pickeral Creek W A. We first stopped at the impoundment labelled Area B on Rt 6. The water is drawing down and there was a lot of activity. Highlights: Killdeer Pectoral Sandpiper - 30 Least Sandpiper - 30 - 50 Semi-palmated SP -1 Lesser Yellowlegs - 40 Greater Yellowlegs - a couple Short-billed Dowitchers - 100 + Bald Eagles - 2 Caspian Terns - 4 The water near the observation deck was even further drawn down, and it yielded more shorebirds: Kildeer Lesser Yellowlegs Pectoral SP Spotted SP - Immatures and some much smaller individuals still with downy feathers, suggesting a second brood The real highlight at this area though, was the group of about 6 immature Hooded Mergansers in a feeding frenzy involving crayfish. They were in shallow water and would come up with crawdads in their bills. They them commenced to shake their heads back and forth until they subdued the crayfish. Sometimes they ended up on the shore whilst dining. It was interesting behavior to see. Pickeral Creek looks like a good bet for shorebirds in the coming weeks. See you on the trails, Chris Pierce N. Olmsted, OH -------------------------------------------------------------------- myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft® Windows® and Linux web and application hosting - http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting ______________________________________________________________________ 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]