Hello, I headed out early this AM for a short but sweet birding trip to the new "under construction" wetlands along the new bikepath at Battelle Darby Creek MP in SW Columbus. I hadn't seen a Vesper Sparrow yet this year, so I was going on Rob Thorn's report of one at the Darby Dan Airport a few days ago. I didn't see or hear any at the airport, but I continued on to the wetlands area of the bikepath at Battelle. I stood quietly along the trail, listening intently for the song of a Vesper Sparrow, and heard only one song that I'm certain was a Vesper. I heard many different versions of Song Sparrow songs in the distance, but the one Vesper song had a distinct quality and started on two lowish notes. I kept seeing what I thought were Vespers, but with so many imm. Horned Larks around (about the same size, color, and general pattern and also with white outer tail feathers), and without them vocalizing, it was hard to make a positive ID. But after I stood there for probably an hour, they began to cooperate more, and I finally saw 4 Vesper Sparrows in beautiful light and only about 20 yards away. They kept competing with a certain pair of Savannah Sparrows for a particular large weed to perch on. Man, I wish I had a good camera, because with the morning sunlight they were beautiful. In the grassy, weedy area I also saw at least 30 Horned Larks (many juveniles), 10+ Savannah Sparrows, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, many Tree and Barn Swallows, and several Am. Goldfinches. At the distant pond to the east (looking right into the morning sun), I could make out at least 12 peeps, 2 yellowlegs, and 4 killdeer. Distance and lighting made further ID impossible. Of note, a park ranger stopped to chat for a minute while I was there, and mentioned a couple interesting things. First, he said he had recently seen a very cooperative Bobwhite near the parking lot at Osprey Lake, within Battelle Darby Creek MP. Pretty interesting, made me think it may have been an escaped bird, but who knows, may be worth checking out. Also, he mentioned that they are trying to turn this new wetland area along the bikepath into a "wooded wetland", and are currently applying certain herbicides to the area to kill out competing weeds and let the trees they have planted grow. I was disappointed by that, because I like all the grassy open habitat for sparrows and bluebirds etc., and having lots of trees would probably make any shorebirds harder to see. Any thoughts on that? I wish they would just make a huge shallow pond with lots of mud and a nearby observation tower for shorebirds! They could even do it in the name of Red Knot conservation. Good birding, Nate Nye Hilliard, OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]