We did not find yellow-crowned night-herons this morning at the traditional spot; other than a single bird seen last week, no one has. It is possible that the two pairs and their offspring that have spent the summer here for so many years have perished. Or maybe they are just late when so many other birds are early. It is also possible that for some reason they have abandoned this nest site. Nesting in this general area dates back into the '50s, and perhaps for some reason they have chosen another spot along Alum Creek nearby. Time will tell. Pick Ponds had an apparent pair of ospreys, with nest preparation underway on the northerly nest pole. There have been intriguing sightings of a pair of sandhill cranes in the area, but we didn't see any. A crane nest in the county would be a great discovery, as there are none on record. Had we seen any, we would not reveal the location, sorry, and I recommend no one else do so, for the birds' sake. We viewed the island rookery in the quarry visible from Shrum Mound on McKinley Ave (on the way we picked up some of the new Franklin Co maps at the Engineer's office, recommended). It is never easy to verify nests there---and doing so will become much harder as the leafage increases--but I was able to count 39 great blue herons, many on nests; 35 double-crested cormorants, a minority on nests, and four great egrets, with one maybe on a nest already. The water here is quite yucky-looking, but cormorants and egrets strongly prefer nesting areas surrounded by water, no matter how unappetizing. This is an important site, for this or other reasons. 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]