We went out to Slate Run for a hike fairly early this morning (we arrived right around 7:30), and were a little surprised by how low the water is in the ponds. This apparently makes for mudflats ideal for killdeer -- we saw many swooping and whooping around each pond. A number of Canada geese and mallards were also around, but more interesting were the numbers of belted kingfishers hanging out along the boardwalk in the wetland area -- at least 4 or 5. We've seen kingfishers at the casting pond on the other side of the park, but I don't think I've ever seen in them in the wetland. There were also a number of green heron, too, often competing with the kingfishers for the same log perches. We also saw one of the sandhill cranes as we were making our return trip back to the car (between 10:00 and 10:30, I think); it's been quite a while since we saw any of them, so it was nice to see at least one apparently doing well. Kingfishers and green heron: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jklsemi/7433960140/ Sandhill crane: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jklsemi/7433941600/ --S. spines at gmail.com ______________________________________________________________________ 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]