Intruiged by Paula Lozano's reports of 100-plus Black Crowned Night Herons in the Flats. (For non-Clevelanders, that's the industrial/commercially developed area around the mouth of the Cuyahoga River), I dropped by Columbus Road briefly today around 2:30 p.m. Sure enough the herons were there, all perched silently and still in some grapevine-festooned trees on the West Bank of the river. I didn't bother to count, because it was cold and I forgot my gloves, but 100-ish looked like a good estimate to me. If you want to check this rather odd (at least to me) spectacle out, come up Columbus Road from the south, cross the lift bridge, and make a left onto Merwin Ave. Approach the riverbank via a small park under the Rapid Transit trestle, and look about 30-40 yards downstream across the river. Bring a scope if you have one, because that's about as close as you can get. There's a locked dry dock facility preventing any nearer access. You can get up behind the trees and see a few of the uppermost birds much more closely by going up the (technically closed for repairs) Riverbed Avenue, but I wouldn't drive up there unless your suspension is pretty good. In other news, despite the fact that I live literally a two minute walk away from Edgewater, I still haven't seen the Brant. Does anyone know if it's still there? Leslie Basalla on the lake shore Cleveland _________________________________________________________________ Talk now to your Hotmail contacts with Windows Live Messenger. http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwme0020000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://get.live.com/messenger/overview ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]