Sorry for the late posting, but I was scouting OBBA blocks around Pickerington, with a side visit to Pick Ponds yesterday, and was surprised at how little had changed in the past 5-7 days.  I was away for 5 of them (in NYC, where the weather is even less appealing than here, and the migration just as stunted), but it seems as if I was just away for hours.  The overcast sky and cold wind kept most of the migrants under cover, except waterfowl at the ponds.  Highlights included:

Grebes - several Pied-billed & Horned around the Wood Duck observation area of Pick Ponds.  Even got to watch a few of them fly, which is always a treat.
Dabbling Ducks - plenty of Mallards, but also pairs of Gadwalls (4-5), Shovelers (4), Green-wings (1) and Blue-wings (2)
Diving Ducks - still some small flocks of Lesser Scaup & Ring-necks, along with 4-5 Bufflehead, but nothing else
Coots - abundant, with 300+ easily visible around Teal POnd, Wood Duck Pond, and Arrowhead Marsh
Herons - still some 10-12 pairs of Great Blue Herons bravely tending nests at the Ellis Pond rookery, but no Egrets of any sort around the ponds
Raptors - mostly hiding from the wind, although Red-tailed Hawk nests were noted in several blocks with birds incubating
Swallows - 20 Tree and 1 BARN were hawking insects around the Wood Duck ponds, despite the cold wind
Mimids - noted Brown Thrashers at several locations, so they seem to have filtered back into this part of Ohio
Warblers - nothing but Yellow-rumps, and not many of them either.
Sparrows - still stuck on temperate migrants, with Fox Sparrows & White-crowns at several spots around Pick Ponds.


Rob Thorn
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