Along the Lake Erie shoreline in northwest Ohio, and specifically in the area of Magee Marsh, Ottawa-Lucas Counties: The last several days have featured warm temperatures, and winds with a strong southerly component. A lot of migrant birds have been riding that train north into our area, with large numbers of arrivals each of the last three days. At least 14 species of warblers were reliably reported from the Magee Marsh boardwalk on April 17 - 18. The most surprising was a very early Am. Redstart; others were all species expected in the early part of the migration, including multiple singing N. Parulas, Black-throated Greens, Pines, and Nashvilles, and scores of Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers. "Overshooting" southern warblers were represented by Hooded and Prothonotary (although the latter could have been a local breeder) and a Louisiana Waterthrush, found in the same area as a Northern Waterthrush near the west end of the boardwalk. Other migrants present at Magee on 4/18 included very large numbers of Hermit Thrushes, one Blue-headed Vireo, two House Wrens, at least 10 Winter Wrens, and at least 20 Rusty Blackbirds. On 4/17 I saw a male Yellow-headed Blackbird with a mixed blackbird flock in a corn stubble field on Krause Road west of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. The auto tour route at Ottawa is scheduled to be open this Saturday, April 19, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., so we'll get a chance to see if the Yellow-headeds are back on territory there. The forecast calls for cooler temperatures this weekend and a good chance of rain, but the southerly wind flow looks likely to continue for a few more days. There is turnover every day now, so the individuals present will probably change, but I expect the diversity to continue to be good (for this early in the season) throughout the weekend in all the migrant traps along the lakeshore here. Since there is so much interest (throughout Ohio and beyond) in the migration through the Crane Creek - Magee area of northwest Ohio, we've put together some pages of birding information that will be updated regularly with reports and predictions throughout the spring. These pages are accessible through the Black Swamp Bird Observatory website at http://www.bsbobird.org/birding/ Hope to see you out in the field -- Kenn Kaufman Rocky Ridge, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]