With some trepidation I went down to the traditional site of wintering black-crowned night-herons on the west bank of the Olentangy just south of the stadium, and indeed the news is not good. Fifteen to twenty birds have traditionally been present by this date, but I could not find one. The nearby area is gouged and fenced by OSU's never-ending construction. The removal of the 5th Ave dam has dropped water levels so that the river is now less than half the former width; this in itself may not have discouraged the roost, but likely the ravages of the bulldozers will. The wilder river should at least prevent more construction in the newly-exposed dry land. Later this month the CBC survey should yield more information, but for now the area is overall repulsive. The much lower water should freeze more readily, and I could not tell if the warm water outflow that enabled the birds to stay all winter will help the roost at all. The birds have in the past temporarily moved down the river a few hundred yards, to the other side, but that bank is radically changed as well. Years from now we may welcome a more free-flowing river, but the night-herons may have to pay the price. As some sort of consolation, I noticed a soaring red-tail above one of the twin towers as I left; a peregrine falcon dashed out from behind the building and drove him off, then retreated to the Shrine of Every Idolatry, the OSU football stadium, to celebrate his triumph as the home team. More later, 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]