Chris Knoll and Mary Warren already have reported on some of the birds found among the huge influx of migrants this morning at the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area boardwalk (Lucas Co., n.w. Ohio), but I wanted to add a few notes. Kim and I spent much of the morning at the boardwalk, and as in the past, we had a chance to observe how things changed during the course of the morning. Most of the birds we're talking about in that situation are nocturnal migrants, of course, and they had arrived en masse during the night last night, but these birds don't necessarily stay put at the spot where they first touch down. They may move a considerable distance before they settle in for the day at a particularly favorable piece of habitat. Early in the morning, for example, we saw a Savannah Sparrow deep inside the woods near the parking lot. It had undoubtedly arrived during the night, the habitat undoubtedly seemed as incongruous to the sparrow as it did to us, and I suspect that before long it had left to seek a more appropriate open, grassy habitat. A short time later we were at the extreme western end of the parking lot, watching as Ovenbirds, thrushes, gnatcatchers, and a variety of warblers moved eastward through the narrow strip of habitat along the beach, working their way toward the larger woods near the boardwalk. The number of Ovenbirds in the woods definitely increased as it got later in the morning, and the same seemed to be true of some other warblers and of Purple Finches. Of course, once a migrant finds a great foraging spot, it may stay essentially in the same tree for the rest of the day. And when that happens, of course, birders can repeatedly re-find birds of interest. Again this morning, talking to other birders, I was reminded of the numbers along the boardwalk and how helpful these would be if birders would use them more consistently. For example, the Worm-eating Warbler that we watched was staying on the south side of the boardwalk between numbers 7 and 8. The male Tennessee Warbler was over the boardwalk at number 2. A Kentucky Warbler was east of the boardwalk at number 17. The Great Horned Owl nest was visible from number 18B. These kinds of designations are much more useful than saying something like, "over on the back of the big loop." The problem is that, when you've seen an interesting bird, you may not remember to hunt around and find the numbers engraved in the top handrail of the boardwalk. I'd like to suggest that birders try to note these numbered locations when reporting birds of interest. An easy way to do it is to consult our map of the boardwalk. Black Swamp Bird Observatory has maps available for free downloading and printing, showing the boardwalk in detail with all the numbers in place. You can find it by going to http://www.bsbo.org/birding/ and following the links for "birding hotspots: directions and maps." The Magee Marsh boardwalk is a great place for birders to share observations, and this numbered map could help us all to share information more clearly. Thanks, everyone, and good birding! Judging by current weather, it looks as if tomorrow will be another great day! Kenn Kaufman Oak Harbor, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]