Hello All- The Purple Martins have returned to their staging area at the southern end of Nimisilia Reservoir (part of the Portage Lakes system). This is south of Akron. At around 8:15 PM, there were a couple hundred starting to flock around the large island. Off to the north, you could see them on the power lines and beginning to lift off. By 8:30 a couple thousand began to come in to the cattail "islands". It is amazing to look up into the sky and see the swirling mass of birds overhead. By 9 PM, they were landing in the cattails and settling in for the night. Sandy Brown Akron 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]