Hi, I was at the Magee Marsh boardwalk for about 6 hours today. While I did not do any precise counts of people or cars, I was rather surprised at the low numbers of people given the date and that today is the start of the festival, compared to the numbers used in the recent economic impact study. I would roughly estimate there were between 200 and 300 people on the boardwalk at peak. When looking at vehicle occupancy I found most had 1 or 2 people. This is consistent with my earlier conclusion that days with 2000 plus attendance occur only a few days a year. A further observation, While the parking lot did have some fuel efficient vehicles, SUVs and min vans were predominant. I would imagine this coincides with the income distribution described in the economic impact study. It would seem birders can afford low gas mileage. I will not draw any conclusions about their concern for carbon emissions. A final observation. There was a noticeable decline in general courtesy in the form of LOUD TALKING by birders and one guide. A few years ago you would only hear birds with hundreds of people on the boardwalk today, Even with the low attendance, human voices were inescapable. Haans Petruschke Kirtland ______________________________________________________________________ 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]