Well, shorebird migration seems a little puny in Ohio this season so far, but rest assured it's happening. It'll be even harder to witness next month when the duck season opens. I like scooting over to Bombay Hook in Delaware to get a better sense of the migration. It's a drive of eight hours, but well worth it; if you leave at midnight you can bird this and other nearby spots and be back in time to get some sleep. We've been oohing over the odd single avocet here, but here's a report of two hours--nice, but not extraordinary, spent by a Delaware observer at the Hook yesterday: * * * * * * * * * 29 species of ~9,485 individuals. Canada Goose - 64 Mallard - 5 Double-crested Cormorant - 1 Great Blue Heron - 15 Great Egret - 420 Snowy Egret - 300 Little Blue Heron - 6 Tricolored Heron - 3 Cattle Egret - 1 Green Heron - 1 White Ibis - 8 Glossy Ibis - 320 Black-necked Stilt - 30 American Avocet - 413 Semipalmated Plover - 14 Greater Yellowlegs - 150 Willet - 1 Lesser Yellowlegs - 65 Stilt Sandpiper - 12 Least Sandpiper - 6 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 2480 Western Sandpiper - 60 Short-billed Dowitcher - 4890 Long-billed Dowitcher - 4 Laughing Gull - 194 Ring-billed Gull - 2 Herring Gull - 1 Caspian Tern - 2 Forster's Tern - 17 - See more at: http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=963168&MLID=DE&MLNM=Delaware#sthash.lNMCNz7c.dpuf * * * * * * * * * There are plenty of rails here, and salt-water sparrows and so on, and I've had a curlew sandpiper on a couple of occasions in fall. If you go, morning light is by far best, and high tide tends to concentrate the flocks. There are other spots with different species nearby on the eastern shore, all worth a visit if you have time; directions on the internet. Other spots are better in the afternoon, and have rails and other marsh birds seldom seen in Ohio, plus some saltwater shorebirds less often seen at the Hook, such as knots and turnstones, sanderlings, oystercatchers, etc, plus tern species we seldom or never see in Ohio. Close by, on one unforgettable day in 1993 I saw the following terns in late July: sandwich, royal, Caspian, Forster's, common, least, black, white-winged, and whiskered (only US record). 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]