A very accessible and informative report came out this month about Canada's birdlife. http://www.stateofcanadasbirds.org/foreword.jsp Based on decades of scientific work and observations from many field workers, it offers a lively and easily-grasped picture of the habitats of Canada--so many of which we share--and their birds--so many of which pass through the US. All the larger-scale data about changes in habitats and populations appear; many of the graphs of gains and losses among species groups are quite revealing, as are possible explanations suggested for these changes. This presentation is anything but technical, but should provoke thought even among the old hands, as it looks at both North and South America over half a century. There are many arresting facts: did you know there are only 500-700 ivory gulls (all in Canada of course) left in this vast expanse? Or that certain insectivorous birds--swallows, swifts, nightjars, and flycatchers--have population drops of 35-85% over the past forty years? Just ask a graying birder how much harder it is these days to find whippoorwills or olive-sided flycatchers. Or that the species group that consistently shows the largest recoveries is waterfowl? Yes, you can get it in French, too. Bonnes observations, 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]