Yesterday my wife and I ate lunch along the Scioto not far from the now-regular nest site of a pair of ospreys. That site was successful in producing two young this year, and is now abandoned. We were intrigued to see two young ospreys (separable because of the bright white highlights on the upperparts) flying separately and together over the big widening of the river just above the dam. What was intriguing was that one of the birds was carrying a stick, which it deposited atop a cell-phone tower behind the new fire station, just like an osprey starting a nest. This tower is about 2-3 hundred yards away from the established nest, which is on a light tower on the Scioto-Audubon park site. This suggested some questions I can't answer. Do young ospreys regularly do a little practice nest-building in their first fall? Do only the males do this? Is anyone seeing this now? I am also intrigued by the date: is it the case that this practice takes place on a day when the duration of daylight is close to the same as the real nest-building by the parents? This reminds me that this raptor shares with the broad-winged hawk a very long migration back and forth from South America, and a pretty tight schedule that the birds probably recognize by the length of daylight; I haven't figured this out yet, but it could be that the same length of day governs their arrivals and departures. If anyone knows more, please let me know. As recently as 2001, Peterjohn in his "The Birds of Ohio" could be rather guarded about the nesting of ospreys anywhere in Ohio. But we have nests these days all over the state, most of which scorn nest sites put up by the ODOW---see Bob Lane's report of twenty nests found near lakes within ten or so miles of Alliance--and some of these observations could be studied. 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]