A gang of Columbus birders spent yesterday birding from Springville Marsh to Ottawa NWR, then back to various Wyandot County spots. We tallied 80-some species (all numbers not in yet). Some observations that may be of interest follow: 1. Back roads in Seneca Co yielded more vesper sparrows than expected, some singing. I wonder if this species is more numerous than many think, because of its habitat requirements and relatively inconspicuous appearance. 2. Benton-Carroll Rd, just south of Ottawa NWR, was the birdiest spot of the day; beyond newly-arrived Bonaparte's gulls, swans, and numerous ducks, seven shorebird species were there in numbers that totaled more than a hundred. Regretfully, we spent only 10-15 minutes here. The spot is private land, maybe 2-3 acres, difficult and dangerous to bird. There is no place to pull off the road. Birders insist on parking on both sides of the road, making it especially annoying and perilous for passing traffic. I predict local residents and law enforcement folks will not allow this to continue. We continued to Ottawa, just across the road, and spent over two hours, walking 3+ miles along the trail system. Here, by contrast, we saw only three shorebird species, totaling less than ten individuals. Perhaps all of Ottawa's shorebird habitat is away from the trails, but we saw water being pumped into two impoundments along the way, rendering them useless for nearly all shorebird species. Go figure. By the way, the north side and the east side of Pond 2B (the northeastern-most accessible one) are closed, because of a bald eagle nest. We wondered if this nest had been newly constructed by the pair that used the very visible one on the east side of the North Woods for the last several years: it has been reoccupied by a just-as-visible great horned owl. We also noticed that entry was no longer blocked to the trail leading south along the west side of pond 8A; this was new to us. See this map http://www.fws.gov/midwest/ottawa/documents/trailmap.pdf . This makes 1+ miles of new trails available to visitors, as near as I can figure. Oh, yes: we had a cooperative northern shrike at the SE corner of 2C. 3. In other news, breeding-plumaged male Lapland longspurs were numerous along the west side of County 112 in the spot made famous by Rick Counts (De Lorme 47, A:6). Sexual selection at its finest. 4. Finally, a four-species blackbird flock just north of Killdeer Plains produced a couple of Brewer's blackbirds. Best to all, Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]