As much as I love it when the big, beautiful, loud and flashy migrants start coming back (think Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-breasted Chat, Scarlet and Summer Tanager, Great-crested Flycatcer, just to name a few), I especially enjoy the month of April, when we have a nice mix of early migrants as well as wintering birds who haven't made their way north yet. This weekend we welcomed Blue-gray Gnatcatchers back to our neighborhood. I almost wonder if a front blew them in, because one day there were none, and the next day I was hearing them all over the place! Also heard the first Louisiana Waterthrush along the ravine on our property this weekend (they were heard in other places along our road the previous weekend). Saw our pair of Eastern Phoebes making regular trips to a nest built (but then abandoned) last year. Unfortunately, it is in a location that could easily be accessed by snakes, which is perhaps why it was abandoned last year. There are still plenty of juncos and White-throated Sparrows around in these parts, and I especially enjoyed watching a Brown Creeper make its way up, up, up a huge tree yesterday. I think it was preparing me for the upcoming season of "warbler neck." Good birding! Heather Aubke Albany, Athens County ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]