We headed west yesterday afternoon to see if we could find the stilt & phalaropes at Big Island. Got there about 4:00, found the area where they were seen but could not find the stilt. But we did see a dozen Wilson's Phalaropes, in beautiful breeding plumage. It's nice for a change to see a bird species in which the female is the one who gets all gussied up. The water in that area was pretty low, so there was no "spinning" for their food. Ran into both Bob Lane & Dan Sanders, who had been searching the area for the stilt but not found it. We stayed in Marion overnight & went back to search some more, still to no avail. The water levels seemed to be even lower than yesterday. We did see some other shorebirds, including a very large flock of Semi-palmated Sandpipers & Dunlins; also Semi-palmated Plovers, 1 Spotted Sandpiper & 1 Pectral Sandpiper Then headed up to Killdeer Plains & while we ticked 25 species there, none were of any significant interest. Laura & Tim Dornan Stark County **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]