I spent this morning birding Big Island Wildlife Area in Marion County. Walking the south dike I flushed or heard 1 AMERICAN BITTERN, 2 VIRGINIA RAILS, and 4 SORA. Dabbling ducks and shorebirds were numerous, but nearly impossible to count. Flocks were continuously moving across the marsh and dissappearing in vegetation. 6 GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS and 1 Vesper Sparrow were singing in the fields just west of the intersection of LaRue-Prospect Rd and Espyvile Rd. Some birds observed were: ~300 Blue-winged Teal ~40 Hooded Merganser ~30 Green-winged Teal XX Canada Goose ~30 Mallard ~20 Wood Duck 5 American Black Duck 4 Northern Shoveler 3 Northern Pintail 1 Mute Swan 1 Pied-billed Grebe 2 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Northern Harrier 4 Bald Eagle ~45 American Coot ~200 Lesser Yellowlegs ~140 Pectoral Sandpiper ~50 Dunlin ~20 Killdeer 6 Solitary Sandpiper 3 Wilson's Snipe 2 Greater Yellowlegs 2 Spotted Sandpiper 1 Dowitcher sp. 4 Red-headed Woodpecker 7 American Pipit 1 Prothonotary Warbler 1 Nashville Warbler 12 Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 Yellow Warbler 3 Swamp Sparrow 4 Savannah Sparrow XX Field Sparrow XX Song Sparrow Ticks are back in full force. Jack Stenger, Ohio Wesleyan University [log in to unmask] --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]