Especially during the migrations, questions come up quite often on ohio-birds about whether a reported species is early or late. Asking on ohio-birds is not the best way to get the right information, however. Having a way of knowing the expected dates for birds is important to observers for lots of reasons: Is a given sighting early or late enough for you to tug on the sleeves of a thousand other birders about it? What can one expect or realistically hope to see in a given week of the year, and what would be really unusual? What are the migration schedules of certain sought-after species? Years of experience help, but there are always things you need to look up. I have three suggestions about how to learn these things, beyond birding in all of your spare time and taking notes for the next few decades. The following sources are valuable for beginners and old hands alike: (1) the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Ohio, from the Ohio Bird Records Committee (2008). This is a very handy 60-page checklist, the most complete in print, for the birds of Ohio, and features clear and detailed charts of the dates and abundances of each species across the year. It's for sale in a few nature centers, but is available to all by sending $3.75 per copy to: Robert Hershberger Time & Optics, Ltd. 6954 CR 77, Millersburg OH 44654 (2) based on the Annotated Checklist above, a very handy way of printing out a checklist of the birds one can hope to see in Ohio in any given day, with abundances for a week before and after the one chosen. This is an accurate, inexpensive, and streamlined way to keep records of daily or weekly lists of observations. Have a look. Thanks to Ned Keller for this innovative product: http://www.ohiobirds.org/publications/checklist/weekly/weeklylist.php There's a version designed specially for the Cincinnati area at http://cincinnatibirds.com/birdlist/cincheck.php (3) finally, for a larger-scale view of seasonal abundances, use Peterjohn's "The Birds of Ohio" (2001). While it does not have the finer detail of the Annotated Checklist, it does offer a general idea, as well as the outlying extreme dates. For example, the Checklist shows the prothonotary warbler in fall becomes rare in August and the first three weeks of September, but does not show the extraordinary report Peterjohn offers of one in Columbus on Nov 11, 1963. And of course this work, essential for any serious birder in the state, offers a lot of additional information in its 637 pages. 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]