Hi there, It was definitely a hot one out there today and I guess the shorebirds didn't like it so much! The boardwalk at Hoover was pretty much dead today in terms of shorebirds. I was there from 10:30 - 11:30, and Gene Stauffer showed up around 11 or so and stayed after I left. Here's my list: Pectoral Sandpiper - 9 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 4 Least Sandpiper - 1 Spotted Sandpiper - 1 immature Red-necked Phalarope - 1 (flew east over the boardwalk toward the old bridge piers, then turned back around and headed over toward the Weise Rd. mudflats. I clearly saw the large dark eye spot against white cheeks and throat. I was unable to relocate it over at Weise Rd.) Killdeer - ~25 Little Blue Heron - 1 Great-blue Heron - abt. 6 or 8 Osprey - 1 Turkey Vulture - 4 or 5 Barn Swallow - 10 Ring-billed Gull - about a doz. Blue-winged Teal - at least 4 or 5 among lots of Mallards Canada Goose - ~40 I then headed over to the Weise Rd. mudflats. There was no activity at all except near a small cove area about 1/4 mile to the south. I walked down that direction along the flats, and saw: Turkey Vulture - ~12 sitting on beach Ring-billed Gull - ~15 Caspian Tern - 2 Greater Yellowlegs - 3 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 1 Spotted Sandpiper - 1 (I think that's what it was) Killdeer - ~8 Double-crested Cormorant - 10 I then went south to Pickerington Ponds M.P. and was at the Wood Duck Picnic Area from 1:45 to 3 pm. I saw the following on Blue wing Pond w/ one noted exception: Great-blue Heron - 3 Black-crowned Night-heron - 3 Green Heron - 1 (along stream by the old county bridge) Killdeer - ~6 Least Sandpiper - 1 Lesser Yellowlegs - 3 STILT SANDPIPER - 2 (caveat: these were the first Stilt Spprs I've ever seen, so I have no experience with them except in field guides.) I studied them for about an hour at about 40 or 50 yards in good light with a 20x - 60x scope and binocs, comparing them with eachother and the other shorebirds that were around. I am very confident that one was a juvenile and the other I think was an adult mostly in winter plumage but retaining a little of its barring on the undertail coverts (any comments on that would be nice). It had unpatterned gray back and wings, lighter eye stripe, and longish, slightly-drooped bill. It was just a little smaller than the Killdeers and Lesser Yellowlegs nearby. It had the exact same body structure as the juvenile. The juv's undertail coverts were pure white, breast was warm buff with fine streaking, tertials and back feathers were dark with bright buffy borders, well-defined light eye-stripe, and longish, slightly drooped bill. They both had a "big-headed" look, as Sibley notes. If anybody could confirm this ID, that would be awesome! That's about it, except other more common stuff. Top it all off with a nice sunburn, and it made for a pretty good afternoon. Hope you all have a great weekend! -Nate Nye ______________________________________________________________________ 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]