I asked a few days ago if anyone had noticed declines in numbers of house wrens in the state this spring, and have just returned from three days of atlasing birds. I find I got 59 answers, from at least 26 counties, all from folks who notice such things. I promised to summarize what I heard, and here is an attempt to do so without getting overly concerned with anecdotal evidence. First of all, just asking if anyone has noticed a decline in house wrens probably biased the results, as more folks who've noticed missing birds will answer than those who have not. Many samples--for instance back-yard observations--are much less significant than wider surveys; one's pair of house wrens will not live forever, after all. Respondents with years and years of records understandably have more information than those who don't. Also, I failed to ask folks to separate reports of migrant birds passing through vs. nesters; birds who've lost territory may nevertheless pass through it in spring and fall. They are virtually unknown in the winter season here, so their arrivals are easily noticed, and nesting males are noisy and easy to detect. By a ratio of about 11 to 7 respondents reported fewer house wrens. And a large proportion of the reporters who did more comprehensive surveys--not just back yards, etc.--felt there were fewer. Only a few respondents felt this species had actually increased in numbers. All in all I'd say there seems to be some reason to pay more attention to the numbers of house wrens, as there may be fewer nesters recently---and this may be the only lesson learned here. House wrens have increased considerably in numbers here over the past century. More rigorous studies, such as the Breeding Bird Atlases, show they are somewhat less numerous as nesters in the southeasternnmost part of the state (see http://bird.atlasing.org/Atlas/OH/Main?cmd=stateSummary&theme=species&edition=current&species=houwre&species=Go also see http://www.nenature.com/HouseWrenBreedingMap.htm): it is possible their lower population in Ohio's SE may have decreased recently, according to reporters. Still, most references say their population is on the rise overall; if there is a decline, it must be quite recent. Still, some careful climate-change projections show nesting house wrens will have moved entirely north of Ohio in the future. Even with all the helpful comments I received, I believe the question is not settled. Answers to larger questions like this will most reliably come from careful surveys such as those conducted by the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas, and if you have questions like this I recommend helping them out while there's still time: http://www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/ Thanks to all who wrote, 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]