It is worth looking up the patterns of migrations of arctic-nesting shorebirds through the Great Lakes. It might be useful to make a few basic points again about regular occurrences here in fall. One large group of regular migrants follows the central (Mississippi) flyway north in spring. Anxious to claim the best nesting territories in the Arctic, they waste no off-course time in getting there. Some examples are Hudsonian godwit, long-billed dowitcher, buff-breasted sandpiper, and stilt sandpiper. Whimbrels move north along or near the Atlantic coast. Few Ohioans have seen these species here in spring. Southbound in fall, most shorebirds move more slowly and widely. Some of the strongest fliers--larger and longer -winged--take advantage of their capabilities to fly in flocks over water on their way to South American wintering areas in fall. Remember recent press stories about the astonishing non-stop flights of thousands of miles by Hudsonian godwits in the western Atlantic and bar-tailed godwits over the Pacific ( http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/barg_updates.html ). Whimbrels and Hudsonian godwits, regular (even if never seen as often as observers would like) in Ohio move through the state almost exclusively in fall, and they show a strong tendency to fly east over Lake Erie, stopping when necessary along shorelines in appropriate habitat, on their way to the Atlantic, where they fly well offshore south to central and South America. See http://www.borealbirds.org/birdguide/mig_map_hudsonian_godwit.shtml and http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm . Long ago, Eskimo curlews too took the central flyway north, and traveled to South America for the winter via an Atlantic Ocean route. Buff-breasteds, l-b dowitchers, and stilt sandpipers, also rare here in spring, seem to fan out and move in a more leisurely fashion in their return journeys (buff-breasteds actually winter in areas where Eskimo curlews used to, but lack their long-range flying abilities), thus are more often found in Ohio in fall. Whimbrels are regularly seen in numbers, in fall often enough in the hundreds, on the Ontario side of Lake Erie. They are seen in smaller numbers here along the Lake, and inland every once in a while --we had an unprecedented flight of 50-60 here in central Ohio a couple of years ago, and hundred-plus were found near Killdeer Plains less than twenty years ago. Sparse regional spring records of whimbrels are mostly restricted to the Ontario side of Lake Erie, and fall flocks average far larger there; this may be because the birds are headed to and from the north, or it may have something to do with the availability of stopover habitat, I don't know. I do know shorebirds are too seldom attracted by habitats artificially dedicated to waterfowl, as exist in many Ohio lakeside wild venues. Anyway, observers interested in fall whimbrel migrants along the Lake on their way south should watch for eastbound flocks in flight from good vantage points (this is how Ontario observers accumulate their large counts), or in expansive shallow wetlands and short grass along the shore where they stop to feed and rest. The latter habitat--when open to visitation by birders--is especially hard to find. Though their numbers are in decline, they are regularly findable there, as they have been for many years. 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]