With all the reports of rails and bitterns recently, I decided to hit the hatchery at dawn. I had barely gotten out of my car when I heard what I thought might be a rail, but with all the robins, red-wingeds, etc. I wasn't sure. I played a recording for Virginia rail - nothing. Then, I heard distinctly the call of a sora, and another answered from a more distant wetland area. I played sora just one time, and the closer one came out in the open briefly, just enough to recognize it. Peter Cashwell, in his book The Verb "To Bird", says that surprise is the greatest pleasure he finds in birding. My day had just begun. In the third wetland area (toward Blind #4, for those familiar with the area), I heard what I thought was a wren. I waited several minutes, and I heard it again. Susan Nash and I had a marsh wren yesterday at Dillon, and this wasn't the right call. I played sedge wren, and up he popped - responding to the play. Wow, a new Licking Co. bird for me, making 195 lifetime, and 104 for this year. The complete list: Canada goose wood duck American wigeon mallard blue-winged teal ring-necked duck red-breasted merganser pied-billed grebe great blue heron bald eagle (one on the nest) red-tailed hawk sora American coot killdeer mourning dove belted kingfisher red-bellied woodpecker yellow-bellied sapsucker downy woodpecker northern flicker pileated woodpecker eastern phoebe blue jay American crow horned lark northern rough-winged swallow tree swallow barn swallow Carolina chickadee tufted titmouse white-breasted nuthatch Carolina wren winter wren sedge wren American robin brown thrasher European starling yellow-rumped warbler eastern towhee American tree sparrow (quite a surprise!) chipping sparrow field sparrow song sparrow swamp sparrow white-throated sparrow (two different ones singing - lovely!) dark-eyed junco northern cardinal red-winged blackbird common grackle brown-headed cowbird American goldfinch house sparrow Did I tell you that the Hebron Fish Hatchery is quickly becoming my favorite place to bird? 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]