As someone with more past than future, I get interested in history. Sue Tackett and I have been talking about her intense interest in Spring Valley WA, and my recollections from visits there in days gone by, about this birding spot in Greene and Warren counties. There is always interesting birdlife here. There is also a state-sponsored gun-shooting facility, so that noise goes on day-long. You get used to it. And next-door there is a giant quarry. Overall strange territory but at least suburbs seem unlikely. Permit me to vent a bit about quarries. Birders will know that these places are often surrounded by high fences and revetments with forbidding signs, often patrolled by guards. I don't know what it is about quarries that makes them potentially so much more dangerous than other lakes or ponds. A few years back a brown pelican chose the quarry next to Spring Valley to spend a week or more, and bird observers were interested in seeing it. The quarry folks could have provided safe areas to have a look, but instead increased surveillance by security staff to keep observers away. This led to some dismay among birders; I recall I and others wanted to get a look, but hours of waiting for it to appear above the wall were unavailing. Finally one of our party--who was in the Army Reserve and wore a uniform to prove it, not to mention some chutzpah--climbed the hill and peeked through the fence in hopes of seeing and verifying the bird. Quarry security did not bother him. Here in Columbus we have a LOT of bodies of water you won't see on most maps--but easy to find on Google satellite scans--where many birds might be observed in a safe way, but they are hidden, presumably lest the public might fall in and drown, and sue the owners. We have some very interesting quarries--where in some cases equally interesting birds may quite safely be observed--that are difficult to visit, and even more difficult to scan, even if they haven't been used for limestone or gravel mining, etc., for decades. I can understand keeping birders and other weirdos away from active mining operations, but providing access to scope an inactive quarry should not be a big problem. I know that boards of quarry companies shudder at the thought of drunken teenagers trespassing and drowning in their properties, but there are plenty of other properties--such as state parks and rivers--where the same dangers exist; it is in fact the secrecy of the quarries that adds to the allure and the illicit midnight swims. And our local Xmas bird counts are extravagantly inaccurate as a result. Nuff said. Returning to planet Earth, I hope Sue will write up an article on Spring Valley and its history and future; it is a unique spot. 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]