Spoonbills seem to be all over the east coast, as well as in Florida. Whistling-ducks are moving north all over the place. The well-known phenomenon of post-breeding wandering by southern species is underway, with unusual intensity. Finally, Ohio seems to be partaking of this movement, with the discovery of a young white ibis in Guernsey County the other day. In Greene County, Indiana, a spectacular retinue of southern waterbirds--and excellent numbers of local ones--has been reported from inland at Goose Pond WMA. Some are part of the post-breeding phenomenon, others probably not. See the IN list's excellent archives for late June and July at https://listserv.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/wa-iub.exe?A0=IN-BIRD-L for first-hand reports. So amazing has this place been that I've made a quick-and-dirty list of waterbirds (max numbers in single sightings) reported there during the last three weeks: Black-bellied whistling-duck 3 Fulvous whistling-duck 5 Mottled duck 5-6 (multiple observers, verification pending) ~eight-ten other duck species Am white pelican 22 Am bittern 2 Least bittern 7 Great egret 77 Little blue heron 4 Cattle egret 40 Black-crowned night-heron 34, evidence of nesting Yellow-crowned night-heron 5 White ibis 5 Glossy ibis 2 White-faced ibis Roseate spoonbill Mississippi kite King rail Virginia rail 2 C. moorhen 5 Am. coot, nest Black-necked stilt 18+ ~ many other shorebird spp Least tern 3, plus black, Forster's, and Caspian Plus the multitude of less unusual birds typical of what looks to be a well-managed wetlands complex*. Certainly this is a landmark event in Indiana, and we have never experienced anything remotely like it in Ohio. We probably should expect fewer southern birds in Ohio than in Indiana, as they're closer to the Mississippi, or in more eastern states, where the ocean funnels wanderers, like the spoonbills and whistling-duck in Delaware. But I do wonder why we have no more than a juvenile white ibis and a brown pelican to show for this continent-wide phenomenon. Habitat? Observer effort? Too late to do much about the former, but let's all pay some special attention to wetlands about now...thanks to Renee, who did. Bill Whan Columbus *See, among many others, accounts at: http://iba.audubon.org/iba/viewSiteProfile.do?siteId=2126 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/NEWS/thisweek/2004/041006/inbeehunterwrp.html ______________________________________________________________________ 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]