After lunch today I spent a couple hours at the Hebron Fish Hatchery and picked up three more Licking Co. year birds, making my total 97. Most of the fish impounds are being filled. I spoke with one of the men last week, and he told me that the walleye have spawned already. The hatchery keeps the eggs in jars for about 3 weeks, then they are put in the impound ponds. This year, the eggs are running about 3 weeks early. So much for the best shorebird habitat, but I had a couple today anyway. The yellowlegs were not associating with each other. The greater left with about 7 killdeer. Here's the complete list: Canada goose wood duck mallard blue-winged teal common merganser great blue heron turkey vulture killdeer 1 greater yellowlegs (IDed by voice/call) 2 lesser yellowlegs (IDed by voice/call) mourning dove belted kingfisher red-bellied woodpecker downy woodpecker northern flicker eastern phoebe blue jay American crow tree swallow Carolina chickadee tufted titmouse American robin brown thrasher European starling eastern towhee chipping sparrow field sparrow fox sparrow (first I've seen at the hatchery) song sparrow swamp sparrow dark-eyed junco northern cardinal red-winged blackbird common grackle brown-headed cowbird Most of the waterfowl have moved on, and in great contrast to recent visits, there was not one gull of any kind in sight. As recently as two weeks ago, there were over 500 ring-billed & herring gulls. However, I focused on the impound ponds, and did not spend much time at the wetlands. Margaret Bowman Newark, Licking Co., 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]