September 11, 2008 I returned home to the Muskingum County farm on Monday night. Too many other obligations, as well as happy circumstances like great weather for riding horses prevented my going to look for the storks until this morning. I arose at 5:00 AM and got on the road by 5:15, stopping for gas and coffee. I wound my way up 93 from I-70 and found myself at the now-famous pond by the dawn's earliest light, around 6:15. The dawn chorus doesn't amount to much in mid-September, some rattling kingfishers, chorping woodpeckers, mewing catbirds and whining pewees. No storks in or around the pond. I ate a muffin and drank the rest of my coffee as the forest lightened. Occasional bursts from an acadian flycatcher and both species of wren (Carolina and house) declared how loud small birds can be on a quiet morning. About 7:00 and no sign of the storks, so I decided to wend my way westward on TR145, further downstream to other stretches of the Will's Creek bottomland. Four wild turkeys ran across the road. I saw a great blue heron flapping powerfully through the fog along the creek. A pileated woodpecker flew across an open field. Beautiful morning! I turned around, went back to the pond and checked it out until 8:00 in better light. A green heron was working the inside bend of the U-shaped pond along the left leg. A spotted sandpiper in non-spotted plumage bobbed and worked along the pond edge. A male kingfisher flew in, perched, preened, and made a half-hearted swoop at motion on the pond surface before disappearing into the trees. Another great-blue heron flew in and out of the scene. A couple minutes after 8:00 I packed it in. Too much to do. Beautiful morning. No storks. Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Hopewell Township, Muskingum 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]