So, there I was, midst the muck fields of Zellwood, checking out shorebirds (yellowlegs, stilt sandpipers, dunlin, dowitchers, leasts, avocets, plovers) and trying to relocate a Franklin's Gull, and the fellow nearby said, "I met a guy from Maryland last week. Greg Miller. Went down the Snake Bight trail with him, looking for flamingos." Zellwood, for those of you Marylanders drifting south to Florida this year, is a happening place. Described in Bill Pranty's ABA guide as a spot to visit July-Sept, Zellwood (NW of Orlando) is in the process of being transformed into a National Wildlife Refuge/reclaimed and treated by Superfund money?/run by the local water district. This is the first year it has not been planted with winter vegetables, and it is alive with birds. On 11/30, Harry x, who is doing counts for Fish & Wildlife, had 117 species--up one from the week before--and estimates some 20,000 individuals. The fields are littered with all sorts of herons and egrets, ibises, storks and sandhills, great clots of white pelicans. On the ponds, anhingas and cormorants, coots and moorhens, Am Bittern, bushels of snipe, lots of waterfowl (including the first Fulvous Whistling Ducks I'd seen in several years). In past weeks there have been, in addition to two Franklin's Gulls, a Cinnamon Teal, Horned and Eared Grebes, Buff-breasteds, a Ruff (I managed to locate it and get, as H. Wierenga would say, "killer looks")--and, great for Floridians, Snow and Canada Geese. The erstwhile celery and carrot fields have sprouted into great habitat for sparrows. In four half-days, I saw six other birder-vehicles and even fewer bugs. (True summer is no doubt a different matter.) Caveats: surrounding fields are still planted, and some roads are off limits; no one wants to offend the farmers (specifics should be sought from Florida birders). It is open M-F, and the gates clang shut at 6 pm. Lydia Schindler Darnestown