By late July we're a full month into the fall shorebird migration, and starting to think about fall migration of other groups of birds. In a brief check of several spots around the Magee Marsh area (Lucas and Ottawa counties, n.w. Ohio) today, I didn't find any obvious migrant songbirds, but there was plenty of activity of summer residents. At the Magee Marsh boardwalk, the water level was higher inside the woods than I've ever seen it. Despite that, I saw essentially no mosquitoes there; I was carrying repellent today, but never used it. Currently the Warbler Capital has morphed into the Yellow Warbler Capital: this is a very common nesting species near the lake shore, and the woods are full of adults and fledged juveniles. Prothonotary Warbler haven't departed yet, and I saw at least four, near numbers 5, 9, and 14 along the boardwalk. (For a map of the boardwalk showing the locations of the numbers, see this link: http://www.bsbo.org/birding/pdf/magee_marsh_boardwalk_map_and_text.pdf ). Among the other species along the boardwalk were Red-eyed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Carolina Wren, and Orchard Oriole. One of the attractions of birding at this time of year is the chance to study juvenile plumages of many species. In addition to the abundant Yellow Warblers, I saw juvenile Downy Woodpeckers, Eastern Wood-Pewees, Warbling Vireos, Common Yellowthroats, and many Gray Catbirds, all readily recognizable but still noticeably different from the adults. The juvenile Eastern Phoebes along the boardwalk are looking incredibly scruffy right now, and they would pose an ID challenge if it weren't for their typical tail-wagging behavior. Along the Lake Erie beach I saw more than 20 Bonaparte's Gulls, in addition to Ring-billed and Herring gulls; their numbers are picking up. On the Magee east beach (wildlife beach), a surprise was a juvenile Northern Mockingbird - full-grown and independent, but still heavily streaked below. It must have hatched somewhere nearby. We don't get a lot of confirmed breeding records of mockingbirds in this part of the state. Since Gray Catbirds and Brown Thrasher were visible at the same time, it was a mimid trifecta. So even without migrant songbirds, it was a rewarding day to be out. Any day now we should see the first migrant warblers - Tennessee, Nashville, Bay-breasted, and Wilson's are all among the species that are possible in the first week of August, or even the last days of July, so there's plenty of reason to get out and look. Kenn Kaufman Oak Harbor, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]