Things were looking spring-like at these two adjacent parks along the Scioto River south of downtown Columbus.  The sun, rising temperatures, and the fast river conspired to clear out much of the ice, except for a shelf in the 'bay' off Whitiier peninsula that served as a loafing area for gulls.  Highlights included:

Dabbling Ducks - nothing other than the expected Mallards & Black Ducks
Diving Ducks - small flock of 12 Lesser Scaup & 3 Common Goldeneye below the dam
Hooded Mergansers - small flocks both above and below the dam
Gulls - 180+ Ring-bills on the ice shelf were joined by 8-9 Herring Gulls
Woodpeckers - 10+ Downies & 1 Red-bellied in 1 hour on the bikepath, but no migrant sapsuckers or Flickers yet
Phoebes - 2 were calling & foraging in the riparian woods along the bikepath at Berliner below the dam
Sparrows - White-throats were much less common, while singing Song Sparrows were at several new locations
blackbirds - a few singing Redwings along the Whittier bikepath, and 1-2 Common Grackles at Berliner

The high water cycles have eroded the ice and flushed quite a bit of trash along the river, but I was unprepared for the upside down car sitting in the shallows just off the new boat launch at Whittier.  The emergency squad was already there, but they didn't seem in too much of a hurry to pull the vehicle out, so I'll assume either no one was inside or it was a practice run for the squad emergency divers.


Rob Thorn
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EarthLink Revolves Around You.

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