I stopped by the wetlands in this MetroPark this afternoon, looking for shorebirds, but instead finding early waterfowl and landbirds. I started at Ellis Pond, hiking the Meadowlark Trail, before moving north to the Wood Duck picnic area and Arrowhead marsh. Water levels were quite high, which helped explain the poor showing of shorebirds. Notables included: Ducks - not very many, but they included 5+ Blue-winged Teal and 3 N.Shovelers Geese - nothing but Canadas Other waterfowl - 10+ Pied-billed Grebes around Wood Duck marsh & Teal Pond hinted at an influx. Wood Duck Pond also had a Coot Herons - only 5-6 Great Blues and 4 Great Egrets over all the ponds I checked Shorebirds - nothing but Kildeer, and only a few of those Raptors - a late-ish Osprey was perched on the treeline at Teal Pond Flycatchers - Phoebes at 2 different places Swallows - flocks of Rough-wings at both Ellis Pond (30+) and Teal Pond (40+), along with a few Tree Swallows Warblers - modest fallout, mostly along the Meadowlark Trail, included 4 Magnolia, 1 Black-thr.Green, 1 Bay-breasted, 1 Palm, 1 Redstart, 5+ Common Yellowthroat Blackbirds - flocks of Redwings totaling 120 birds scattered over all the wetlands. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]