After a couple of years of equivocal sightings, a nest of the Eurasian collared-dove in the towers of the grain elevators in downtown Celina was verified yesterday by veteran atlaser Troy Shively. It is, I am told, visible from the ground, and remain so unless it is removed by the operators. While nesting has been suspected in several western counties, Mercer joins only Logan County as ones with nests witnessed as occupied by brooding birds. Ohio, sheltered as it is by the Appalachians, has not experienced big invasions of this exotic species; their spread, even in Europe, has always proceeded from SE to NW across the landscape, and they seem reluctant to cross mountainous terrain. Even though it has been verified in Alaska, and is numerous in the Great Plains, its numbers from central Ohio across to the Atlantic seaboard have been modest at best and slower to arrive. Fortunately, both here and in Europe it apparently has posed few if any serious challenges to native birds, nor has it generally ticked off human hosts. If they are a serious annoyance to anyone here, I have yet to hear of it. 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]