Some changes have been made at the Shrum Mound, a ~2000-year-old undisturbed burial mound in Columbus. Recently, all the trees were removed from the mound, some of them older hardwoods close to a foot thick. There are several ways to appraise this; seems to me it's a sensible way to conserve this site, which has never been dug up. Fortunately, the conservators (they call themselves the "Ohio History Connection" now, but they'll always be the Ohio Historical Society to me) became aware that the mound was a good site from which nesting birds on an island in an adjacent quarry could be observed, and some vegetation has been removed along that sight line to make them easier to observe from the top of the mound (~20 ft high). As of yesterday there is plenty to see on the island, with great blue herons, great egrets, and double-crested cormorants still hanging around, and who can be sure what else; in my brief observation, I couldn't tell if any late nesting was under way. I did not see the pairof herring gulls, but they could be on the harder-to-see western side.Birders will remember that some years ago egrets were uncommon migrantsin the county, but the birds' discovery of this little island have made their nests easy to see. Blue herons will nest in trees near to water, as will cormorants, but egrets insist upon a nest site surrounded by water. There are only a few inland nest sites for egrets in Ohio, and this is the largest I know of. Just search "Shrum Mound" for a map. 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]