I ritually write a reminder like this each April, and this year it's nice some birds have actually been reported already! Finding Smith's here in April is almost entirely a matter of finding prime stopover habitat. This habitat is no longer common, so hats off to the Holmes/Tuscarawas group for persistently searching for some. I suspect there were some farmers among them, which must have been a great help. Despite the range maps, Smith's move north as far east as western Ohio; they are regular in eastern Illinois and Indiana. Their Ohio migration has slowed to a trickle with the use of agricultural chemicals that suppress their favorite plant: foxtail, a weed that often shows up in cornfields and persists in matted form till spring plowing; this time of year it is sprawling straw-colored leaves, with few remaining seed-heads. They also show up in grass/winter rice fields, but often are hard to see there unless you can get a vantage point parallel to the rows. They have even been seen in tomato fields. Any quite large fairly flat field in the western half of the state with foxtail is well worth studying this time of year. There no longer are many of them, but if nothing else this concentrates the birds. Franklin County has a record of as many as 100 birds (3/6/71), but our county's surviving farmers don't tolerate foxtail these days. Seek out less industrial-scale farms (yes, I know I also advise seeking out quite large fields), organic or old-fashioned farms, the farther west the better. I am sure this is how the current location was found. There are probably quite a few out there--and their numbers will be increasing since it'll be weeks before the breeding grounds are free of snow and have food, so birders in other counties along the Indiana line should resign themselves to a day of sorting through vesper sparrows and horned larks to find Smith's. The Smith's passing through Ohio are mostly heading toward the south shore of Hudson Bay (see some of Bob Royse's photos of males from this area at http://www.roysephotos.com/SmithsLongspur.html ). They can stay for three weeks in a staging area at our latitude, and the handful of records to our immediate north (Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario) suggests they make few--though long--stops along the way, those after our latitude well beyond human habitations. They can arrive here as soon as early March, and have stayed into May. If you find this habitat along a quiet road, just park and look carefully into the field. They can be quite close, but well camouflaged; getting out and slamming doors will move them farther out. Look for the apricot-colored underparts of the males, and the narrow white bars on the upperwing coverts. They may be in the same field with Laplands, but seldom associate closely. The "watch-winding" calls are similar, but discriminable with practice. Enough said. There is a wealth of further detail in the Spring 2002 issue of the Ohio Cardinal, with five articles about this species. And good luck, 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]