Ohio birders must be delighted that fish crows have been--abruptly, and in surprising large numbers--reported showing up here. The Ohio Bird Records Committee got some documentations, including photos sound recordings, about a number of birds seen along the Lakefront last spring. Because this would be an unexpected appearance of a species new to the Ohio list, it is still being carefully considered, as will be documentation on the reported nest. A lot of us have been expecting the expansion of fish crows' range to include Ohio, and I was among the majority waiting for them to move up along the Ohio River first. Others thought the Pennsylvania population would edge up into SE Ohio. Evidently neither was to be. I wonder how many US readers noticed the explosion of reports of fish crows on the northern shores of Lake Erie this spring and last--before there was a whisper about them in Ohio. Nesting was suspected last year near Pt. Pelee. We tend to ignore too many events in Ontario along the lake we share, because (human) travel time makes these habitats seem farther away than they really are, and also because the sport of listing is less often international in scope. And maybe a bit of chauvinism, too. At any rate, for some reason fish crows in interesting numbers have appeared over the past year on both sides of the Lake. No doubt there are some other nests, and if they are not molested there will likely be more. These are not rarities that may never be seen again, and crowds of listers need not chase them around as they establish an urban nest. Only in recent decades have large numbers of crow species begun to live in cities; it's warmer there, and it's safer for an intelligent species long singled out as game and pest in rural areas. Fish crows may be following American crows for the same reasons, with climate warming to assist them. Wouldn't it be a shame to delay their occupations by putting too much pressure on the first inroads made by these intelligent and wary birds, all for self-gratification? Pressure from human observers would be a weird factor in studying their range expansion, no? 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]