This morning Paul Gardner and I braved a chilly wet spell at the restored prairies at Battelle-Darby MP SW of Columbus. The habitat specialties here also include a relatively untouched riparian forest, which we did not visit. A few decades ago, American bitterns were very hard to find in the county; it is too early to tell whether all of them were nesting, but we heard eight bitterns (saw two in flight squabbling). Noisy marsh wrens, recently discovered to be nesting, were found at Teal Pond; they have been hard or impossible to find in the county for several decades as breeders. Henslow's sparrows were getting close to impossible to find in the county in recent decades, but a healthy population was heard along Kuhlwein Rd, along with vespers, one of whose nests (four eggs) I nearly stepped on. The wetter parts were flooded, and boots are advised. The local breeding waterfowl--coots, mallards, bl-winged teals, shovelers, black ducks, hooded mergansers--were present, but the water was so high as to invite no shorebirds; if the weather turns normal we should see many of these migrants later. All in all some very hopeful signs are rewarding the Parks' improvements here, and exploration should be worthwhile for local birders. Bill Whan Cols ______________________________________________________________________ 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]