Some will recognize this as the site of one of the few inland breeding spots for egrets in Ohio. We had a picnic at the Mound today, and found the island in the quarry to the east hosted dozens each of cormorants, great blue herons, and great egrets. Thick vegetation made it harder than usual to assess numbers, but what I could count were a predominant number of herons. Interestingly, while the few larger trees were dead, and cormorants and herons continued to nest in them, a lush profusion of smaller saplings below hosted all the egrets and some of the others. The current dogma says that cormorants' droppings kill vegetation, but it does not seem the case here, as the island is well-vegetated. This site is important as a unique and well-established Ohio inland site for nesting egrets and cormorants. These species seem to nest only on sites surrounded by water. The herons are picky, but do not seem to require a moat to isolate nest sites. We looked for night-herons, but could not find any: information about these Ardeidae is much desired! Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]