With a little free time this morning, I hiked around these two neighboring areas in west-central Columbus (DeLorme p. 68 A1) to look for waterfowl and unsual landbirds.  I could not relocate the Western Tanager despite looking around much of the Grandview neighborhood that it had frequented; Ridgeway Place was especially birdy, and it's possible that the bird could still be around there in the throngs of finches, cardinals, and sparrows.   Most of the quarries & lakes around Marble Cliff were ice-free, and had the expected waterfowl for there.  Highlights included:
cormorant - 1 at Watermark Lake
Great Blue Herons - 3-4 scattered along the Scioto River at Marble Cliff
dabbling ducks - nothing but Mallards
diving ducks - 28-30 Ring-necks were in an actively feeding flock at Watermark Lake
mergansers - 6-8 Hooded Mergansers were scattered around different lakes at Marble Cliff
gulls - only a scattering of Ring-bills were here.  It usually needs to get much colder to drive large gull numbers to this area.
woodpeckers - higher than expected #s of Downies & Red-bellies at both spots, along with a Hairy along the Scioto River bikepath
wrens, creeper - Carolina Wrens were common around Grandview, with 7-8 on an hour-long walk; a singing Brown Creeper was here also.
Robins - surprisingly few at both locations, but the wild berry crop is now pretty thin at both spots (even in Grandview)
Sparrows - flocks of White-throats were common at both spots, along with a few juncos
Finches - House finches were abundant in Grandview, while smaller #s of Goldfinches were at both locations.


Rob Thorn
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