Yesterday I worked outside all day and had several small flocks of Purple Martins visit my property [Trumbull County]. There were anywhere from 3 to 14 individuals in each flock, with a daily total of 53 birds. The flocks came through between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm. The flocks were fairly distributed throughout that time period. The martins were VERY vocal. All of them slowly made their way south. Some hung out for a bit longer when I was mowing but moved on after about 20 minutes. The rain stopped as I arrived at Conneaut this morning around 10. I was delighted to see the Piping Plover (new Ohio life bird for me!) was still there. Two Black-bellied Plovers, 2 Semi-palmated Plovers, 3 Killdeer and several other shorebirds were present as well. A Bald Eagle flew by but the birds held tight. I was told that a Merlin was there earlier this morning and stirred things up a bit. Thanks to all who kept posting about the plover. i couldn't go until today and appreciate the updates. Judy Hochadel ______________________________________________________________________ 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]