With the little free time I could gather for the last two days, I birded several areas along this scenic creek just east of Columbus.  It's a hidden gem, traversing rural & wooded areas of Plain twonship,New Albany, & Jefferson Township before cutting through downtown Gahanna to join with Big Walnut Creek.  Despite having few parks or preserves, it's in good shape largely due to a good working arrangement between the Rocky Fork Creek Conservation Group and landowners along the creek.  With permission, I was able to visit several areas along the creek and , despite the snow & cold temperatures, found good numbers of forest birds.  Not only were woodpeckers & flock birds (chickadees, titmice, etc) in good numbers, but these numbers were being maintained without many feeders.  There were also some notables, including:
Hairy Woodpeckers - common, with 1-2 at nearly every stop
Pileated Woodpecker - only 1, in the largest forest area along the creek
Brown Creepers - a few at every stop, the only winter 'vagrant' with any numbers here.
E.Bluebirds - flocks of 2, 3, and 5 at three different stops, fairly good numbers given the bitter weather
Robins - nowhere common, but still plenty around scuffling for berries and digging in exposed leaf litter under trees & bushes
Tree Sparrows - only a few; the cold weather does not seem to have pushed them down to central Ohio much
Field Sparrows - a 'flock' of 6 at Thompson Park (one of the few public accesses to the creek)

This area is one of the best for winter vagrants (Red-br.Nuthatches, winter wrens, winter finches, owls, etc.) close to Columbus, and their absence even in this cold, wintry weather says volumes about their food sources further north.  I would wager that there are good numbers of these birds up in Michigan & Ontario.


Rob Thorn
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