Today, I attended a Lake Metroparks birding program with our guide being John Pogacnik. We started the morning at the new park in Perry: Lake Erie Bluffs. This is a great park with lake views and a great trail with lots of vegetation. Although warbler (3 species) and sparrow (3 species) numbers were low, a MERLIN was a nice highlight. It was first seen flying over the lake and John made the ID while it flew in and over the trees. Other birds of note were Red-breasted Merganser, Bald Eagle (4-5), Cooper's Hawk, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Red-breasted Nuthatch. eBird checklist can be seen here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11681526 Our next stop was Wake Robin. When we arrived, we were told a Nelson's Sparrow was being seen, but hadn't been seen for the past hour. We spent about a half an hour looking for it before I found a single Nelson's to the right of the pond, on the left side of the boardwalk. It flushed up and flew, showing the short tail. Other birds of note included Sora, American Kestrel (flyover), Red-breasted Nuthatch, Marsh Wren, 3 warblers spp. and sparrows: Savannah, Song, Lincoln's & Swamp. eBird list here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11681919 Good Birding, Cole F. DiFabio Kirtland, Lake County jrbirder.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]