It always interests me to see how certain species, every year, show up in other locations around the state, even up by the Lake, before they appear at our farm at latitude 40 North. I attribute this to the fact that our place is a destination, not a trap of any sort. "Average" Ohio Appalachian upland in every sense. There are no real wetlands, although there are some wet soils around the seeps and springs. And there are no conifers other than a couple sickly cedars growing where they shouldn't. Just open pastures, and a successional field with plenty of edge habitat, surrounded by three forested ravines. The forested ravines are contiguous with the largest patch of forest in these parts (western Muskingum County) according to what can be seen on Google Maps. That forest is broken for sure, by various clearings, farms and homesites, but there are some fairly mature patches including some tall tulip poplars and black locusts on our place. So it has come to pass that many seasonal residents have returned to our forest, seemingly overnight. I have been afoot in our forest regularly, morning and evening, the past two days, and none of these guys were around. This morning, as we took our daily walk around the property, Jane and I were serenaded by wood thrush, scarlet tanager, rose-breasted grosbeak, and cerulean warbler; all first-of-season for me at this location. All were singing or vocalizing in places where I observed nesting last year, with additional ceruleans singing in the deep, eastern ravine. Very cool! As usual, the ceruleans are impossibly hard to see, but so it goes. One of the grosbeaks dropped down to just overhead, as if to say, "Hello" with its sharp, metallic "kiik." Either a second ovenbird or a Kentucky warbler has started singing from the distance up the east bank above the falls. I have had both in this area in previous seasons, and I can't quite tell the difference without closer approach and study. Vireos of some sort, probably red-eyed, are singing from the increasingly leafy canopy, having arrived earlier this week. Lots of yellow-rumped warblers are everywhere. A few black-throated green warblers joined them yesterday and continue today. The whole place was moist and fresh following yesterday's rain. Life is good! Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ 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]