I'm going to be in Huron and Vermilion one day this week. Planning tentatively to visit the Huron lighthouse/pier area, Huron river greenway and DuPont marsh, Old Woman Creek estuary and probably hit Sandy Ridge en route. Yeas or Nays on whether these areas are currently producing decent variety of birds welcomed. Also, any other suggestions appreciated. I have a red shouldered hawk visiting the yard daily again, after an absence of a few weeks. His arrival is announced by the ruckus of jays, crows, chickadees and other birds scolding his presence. He (she?) likes to sit in my dwarf crabapple tree overlooking the neighbor's unmowed field. Comical in a way, since he's only 6 feet off the ground, hunting like an oversized bluebird. One of the blue jays has figured out how to thwart my anti-squirrel bird feeder -- one with a weight sensitive device that closes the feeder trough cover when anything heavier than two cardinals perches there. He lands on the finch feeder post a few feet away to plan his attack, presumably selecting his target morsel, then flies to the weighted feeder and quickly snatches the target as he lands, just before the cover snaps closed. He then retreats to a nearby perch to consume his prize. These creatures are certainly entertaining to watch! Karen Gray Copley/Summit Co. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]