Greetings... Gilmore Ponds in Butler County has been closed to the public for most of the past two years, but it reopened recently. In years past, when water and mud conditions have been favorable, there has been some really good shorebirding at Gilmore Ponds. This year, the water and mud conditions are very favorable. What isn't favorable, though, are the number of trees, particularly silver maples, that have spread into the West Pond portion of Gilmore Ponds. This has broken up some excellent shorebird habitat into smaller chunks, some a few acres in size, but all bordered one side or more by walls of silver maples. From the trail I couldn't see the shorebird habitat until I waded through the vegetation and water and there before me in one open area, were over a hundred Killdeer and a mix of other shorebirds, all running about in shallow pools and atop beautiful, rich black mud, abounding in insects. It's nice to see some decent habitat and think of the potential for good birds and good numbers. A number of people on the list have visited Gilmore Ponds at one time or another, so I figured I'd make mention that the area is open again and has potential, though you'll have to do some work to get into the habitat. Considering how things usually are in Butler County, Gilmore Ponds opened again and with the signs of some decent habitat is a nice development. Here's a site account for Gilmore Ponds from the OOS website: http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=30 Take care, ---Mike Busam Butler County, 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]