Fellow birders, Another IMBD has come and gone, so it must be time for another people report from the boardwalk. I thought the number of people on the boardwalk was actually down a bit from last year, when gridlock was nearly constant. This year it was just occasional. At one of those moments I heard a birder comment "Yea, this is not fun". But things thinned out later and became tolerable. Unfortunately, the birds thinned out as well, and it might have been the worst day for warblers I've seen in fifteen years. Even so, there was a decent variety. From my limited perspective, the demographics went something like this. I saw 8 1/2 African Americans, (not Barack), down slightly from last year. About ten to fifteen percent were Amish, also possibly down a bit. The most distant licence plate was actually ALASKA!! California, Texas, Florida and all of New England were also represented. The best bumper sticker said 'I disliked Bush before disliking Bush was popular". I encountered no foreign birders, but did meet a large contingent from Pittsburgh, who spoke with a strange accent and watched the hockey game Friday night. How foreign is that? I would guess that about a third of the birders were overweight, and we were all a year older. Aside from the Amish, very few were packing children, and quite a few were in scooters. Celebrity birders were Rare to Accidental. I'm sure they were there, but like the Rails, I didn't see many. I did see Chris Miller getting his picture taken with another birder, and the Stokes were passing out literature about their latest book. Tom Bartlett was sitting on his butt, as usual. Kim Kaufmann was cheerfully, as usual, giving out info on bird sightings, as was Mary Warren, whose posts are always appreciated. Young birder star Ethan Kistler took us and about a dozen other birders directly to an Orange Crowned warbler. He does that a lot, and we thank him. Jim McCormac was apparently out cavorting with the rails. Bill Wahn was disguised as a "giant garlic mustard weed". At least that's what he told me last year. I hope no one tried to pull that one up. During seven days of birding at Magee and other areas around Ohio, I spotted an impressive 167 species. Not a bad week of birding, and Magee is always the highlight, with or without a few thousand other birders. Joe in the woods Perry county ______________________________________________________________________ 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]