Bill gves a good concise overview of where to find information on Ohio birds among primary sources, especially that of seasonal distribution. But a brief addenda if I may with regard to North American Birds, the quarterly review of ornithological sightings published by the American Birding Association. Seen as a body of work over decades, I must agree with Bill when he says "[it] seldom bothers to recognize late and early records for Ohio" ... or at least so was the case during a time of severe space constraints whilst covering IA, MO, much of KY, IN, IL, and most of Ohio in a single review. However, since the spring of 2003, I would like to point out that coincident with an expansion of the text and re-alignment of the region, I have printed every late and early record date for each state I cover (OH, WV, PA) ... at least that of which I am made aware and sufficient details exist to convince me of the veracity of the record. The matter of population change is at the heart of my professional ornithological interests. I have attempted to address these in editorials from The Ohio Cardinal, Ohio Birds and Natural History and now North American Birds. I have discussed early and late dates within the context of reverse migration, broad-front migration vs overflights, territorial philopatry, peak migrations shifts, egg dates, etc. In other words, I try to provide some biological context, if only by supposition and not conclusion, for some of these outliers of the main data set. That said, The Ohio Cardinal will always provide for a level of detail of individual records that a more regional treatment cannot. I also highly value and support more local efforts within Ohio to get raw observations into the public venue where researchers can tease apart patterns and trends. If you ever doubt, please be assured that someone is always examining the import of your observations. There remains another resource one may query for dates, although admittedly it is a diamond-in-the-rough, and the data set presently is so limited as to only provide a sense of future possibilities. And that is Project eBird. I will want to explore the utility of this online database more fully another time. For now, I invite the reader to visit http://ebird.org/ and click on the Ohio link at right off the main page. Up comes the seasonal distribution as graphed from the data entered thus far in 2007. Quickly one will see major gaps with respect to the more uncommon species but this vetted database does hold promise for provided a near real-time look at seasonal distribution, one that can be manipulated to reflect multiple years, a single county, or on a finer scale a single month .... one can spend hours bringing up different possibilities. Please feel free to contact with any questions regarding either North AMerican Birds or Project eBird. cheers Vic Fazio Regional Editor, OH-WV-PA, North American Birds Project eBird: Ohio record review Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Recently on this list questions have come up about record-late occurrences of certain species. With the recent warming of the climate, observers also wonder about record-early appearances in the spring, as well as the occasional surprising mid-winter bird. No doubt more and more records are going to be broken, not only because of the weather, but because more and more birders, increasingly knowledgeable and interconnected, are on the scene. Several times over the past week questions have arisen about late records, and it might be worthwhile mentioning where the answers are. For these and many other inquiries, your first resort should be Peterjohn's "The Birds of Ohio." This work covers the published record with great care. Still, it does not treat museum specimens, and of course contains no information since climate warming seems to have increased its pace over recent years. Checklists, for all their usefulness, seldom treat these outlying records. The most detailed, the OBRC annotated checklist, linked at http://www.ohiobirds.org/publications/checklist/checklists.php is great for records of rare species and normal periods for the rest, but does not treat casual or isolated occurrences at odd times of year. Periodicals cover and update such records. "North American Birds" does this on a regional level, but seldom bothers to recognize late and early records for Ohio. "The Cleveland Bird Calendar" and "The Bobolink" keep good track of records in the counties they cover, and "The Ohio Cardinal" does so on a state level. These are the sources on which books like "The Birds of Ohio" largely rely, and the best source of this information. For late Ohio records of ruby-throated hummingbird, for example, Peterjohn is out of date. Two well-documented birds in 2002 stayed until 30 November, one in Westerville and one in Massillon; the Bobolink published the latter, the Cardinal both. The current Toledo bird is setting a new record with each passing day, and will be duly chronicled in the latter journal. Peterjohn is understandably vague about late records of ospreys, another source of questions recently. The great majority of published December and January records come from Christmas Bird Counts, where the numbers of inexperienced observers involved provoke extra scrutiny olf such reports. In many cases compilers' annotations cast doubt on these IDs, but there are a few with varying degrees of documentation. I find only a handful of winter records accepted by periodicals. One was documented in Lorain Co on 13 Jan 1980, another reported in Hocking Co on 20 Feb 1982, and birds were photographed in 2004 in Darke and Clark counties on 12 and 15 December respectively. The earliest spring arrival seems to date from 9 Mar 1991. So Ohio seems to have accepted records of ospreys in every month of the year. 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] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]