I have three questions about Ohio shorebirds. If anyone has some good information, please share. 1) There have been up to 19 Wilson's phalaropes in an agricultural field in Marion Co over the past week-plus. Several observers, myself included, saw and reported birds copulating. Nesting has been documented at this spot in three recent years. A good birder visiting there the day before yesterday reported NO phalaropes. Does anyone have information to (a) confirm that these birds have not been seen since then, or (b) indicate that this species will regularly copulate before reaching the breeding grounds? 2) Some have sought to excuse eradication of shores for shorebirds along Lake Erie by citing the attractiveness of pooled rainwater in agricultural fields near the Lake, at least during the spring migration (in fall, of course, these fields are usually covered with crops). My observations of spring shorebirds in these locations is that they readily stop here briefly, for lack of anything else, but don't spend much time feeding. Does anyone know of good published studies of the effects of agricultural chemicals on food production for migrant shorebirds? I don't imagine these birds stay long enough to suffer much from the chemicals, but they may not be finding much to eat, either. 3) We are seeing an unusually late northward movement of shorebirds this year, seems to me. Observers from Florida have been reporting unusual numbers still headed our way over the past few days, and our Big Day team had 14 species on June 1st, and could easily have had 17. Certain breeding spots have been late to develop nesting conditions, as well, with some opening up only recently (see Jean Iron's reports from James Bay at http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/SHOR.html#1212845108 ). It would be good to document this sufficiently, so if you see shorebirds (not local breeders like killdeers, woodcocks, spotties, etc.) over the next couple of weeks, please report them here in detail, so we can keep track. By late June, on the other hand, many shorebirds will already be returning from the Arctic, so they wouldn't count for this purpose. Thanks as always for reliable bird reports, Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]