I birded the Wilderness Road area of Funk Bottoms this morning and was pleased to see that the ponds have recently been pumped out, creating some outstanding shorebird habitat. This has happened since I was there in mid-July when the ponds were all still full of water. Many of you remember that these ponds were pumped out last summer and the shorebirding was fantastic into early September. Today, the shorebird numbers were not that high, but I did see 8 species: Killdeer (40+), semipalmated plover (2), greater yellowlegs (6), lesser yellowlegs (4), spotted (5), semipalmated sandpiper (3), least sandpiper (15+). Amazingly, there were over 130 great blue herons standing towards the back of the drained ponds along with a *dozen* immature bald eagles. One caspian tern was standing in the mudflats. A flight of 17 sandhill cranes came in to the field to the west, and I'm sure there were more out of sight. The other noteworthy sighting was the massing of bank swallows. At one point I saw nearly 100 lined up on one telephone wire. The Wilderness Rd. area of Funk Bottoms merits watching closely for shorebirds the next month or so. The habitat there is now superb! Randy Rowe, Wooster ______________________________________________________________________ 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.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]