Five of us birded yesterday along the lakefront from Fairport Harbor to Lorain, scene of the only rain in Ohio, it seemed, as we could see few clouds out over the lake or five miles inland. Cold and wet, with many birds, but few surprises. At least three lateish Virginia rails were seen and heard along the Wake Robin trail, along with many common sparrows. A harrier insisted on hunting with us, and often kept the latter at a distance. Worth mentioning was a peregrine perched on an four-foot-tall upright amid a gathering of several hundred d-c cormorants at the Eastlake power plant; a seemingly serene scene, with no attacks by the cormorants. As others have mentioned, waves of kinglets and creepers, a dribble of Bonaparte's on a delayed schedule. A first-winter common tern and a Caspian accompanied the usual ring-billed loafers on the Lorain pier. In the impoundment we found of hordes of sparrows, dominated by many hundreds of white-throated/crowned, as well as two unlucky ruby-crowned kinglets, a male and a female, dead after having gotten snagged on burdock burs. A hard way to go, and a reminder of where the idea for Velcro came from. 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]