Spent a few hours hiking around these two Scioto river parks near downtown Columbus looking for early migrants.  The parking area/boat launch at Whittier has been re-opened and looks quie nice, which much better visibility of the river.  Temperate migrants were in good supply (even cormorants), but neotropicals have yet to arrive here.  Highlights included

herons - only 4 Great Blue Herons, with no Egrets or Night Herons along the rather high-water river at Whittier
cormorants - 10-20 in a loose flock above the Greenlawn dam at Whittier, along with several more flying north (look out, Erie!:-)
ducks - only a few Mallards and 1 stray male N.Shoveler above the dam and nothing along the high-water river below the dam
woodpeckers - quite a few, including 14 Downies, 6 sapsuckers, and 7 flickers
flycatchers - only a few Phoebes flycatching in the freshly un-flooded riparian woods below the dam in Berliner park
swallows - a flock of 10-12 Tree swallows hawking insects over the new wetland ponds along Whittier Ave, while a few Rough-wings were calling near the old railroad pylons in the river at Berliner (a traditional nest spot).  No Cliffs have returned yet to the I-70 bridge nests.
kinglets,gnatcatchers - fair #s of both kinglets, plus 3-4 blue-gray gnatcatchers scattered along the bikepath
mimids - a mockingbird singing at Whittier was competing with 2 singing brown thrashers in the same stretch of bikepath
warblers - only a few yellow-rumps, despite the nice temperatures and clear skies.  Hopefully this category will grow soon.
sparrows - still towhees, juncos, and 35-40 White-throats scattered along the bikepath at Whittier, but Fox sparrows seem to have gone


Rob Thorn
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EarthLink Revolves Around You.

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