Hi all, Just back from another fabulous Amish Bird Symposium - the 4th one to date. They had about 300 attendees this year, and the organizers do an excellent job. The slate of speakers was phenomenal. This is held down in Adams County, which is about as far south as one can go in Ohio. Lots of the early migrants around, including calling Eastern Phoebes, tons of territorial Red-winged Blackbirds, loads of Common Grackles, Killdeers everywhere as well as migrant American Robins, and Friday night - which was much warmer than tonight - we had maybe a dozen displaying American Woodcocks. As Eric Reiner noted, the Scioto River is really flooded, and many of the low-lying fields from Circleville all the way down to the Ohio River are now mini lakes. These areas will be worth watching. Today at Adams Lake near West Union in Adams County, there were Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Gadwall, American Black Duck, Mallard, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, and Hooded Merganser. I'm sure someone working the Scioto River tomorrow would pick up these and many more, and probably in pretty good numbers, too. On a non-bird sign of spring note, Lucy Miller related to me that massive numbers of Spotted Salamanders were on the move in Adams County on Thursday evening, when it was warm and rainy. We found time to hit a good vernal pool down there today, and there were plenty of Jefferson's Salamander egg masses in the water, and we caught one big adult. Jim McCormac Columbus, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. 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]