I revisited several OBBA blocks on the vicinity of this southern Columbus suburb, and was pleasantly surprised by the extent of bird activity.  The cool morning seemed to energize them, and birds were singing and foraging well into the early afternoon.  I ranged from Chatterton greenbelt down through 3-Creeks Park and Richardson Road Park to Rickenbacker Airport.  Most of this area is rural or parkland, but it still held some unexpected surprises including:

Great Egrets - 9 had accumulated at the drying wetlands along the Alum Creek bikepath in 3-Creeks MetroPark.  Possbily these are some of the same birds found last week by Philip North behind the Southgate shopping center (about 4 miles due west).  At least 3 of them were sporting nice breeding plumes, but none of them seemed in any hurry to commute back to a rookery so they may be non-breeders.

Cuckoos - Yellow-bills were unexpectedly common, being found in virtually every block I visited.  More impressive, however, was a _singing_ Black-billed at Richardson Road Parkland.   This is only about the 2nd time I've ever heard one of them singing in Franklin County.  It's probably too late to be a migrant, even by lax cuckoo standards, so I'll check back there in 2 weeks or so.

Warblers - most unusual was another signing male Black&White, this one in a woodlot along the southeast margin of the Rickenbacker Airport.  3-Creeks Park had at least 2 Parulas on territory, as well as a Prothonotary singing in the flooded forest just east of the bikepath bridge over Big Walnut Creek (no snickering Charlie; they're not nesters here yet).  Not to be outdone, Richardson Road Parkland had 3 different Chat territories, and since it straddles 2 OBBA blocks, it supplied this species to both.

grassland sparrows - a Vesper Sparrow was singing in the open grasslands of the Rickenbacker Airport buffer zone.  These birds may be scarce around Columbus now precisely because these kinds of open Grasslands are so rare.  Savannah Sparrows were at several locations, and seem to be able to tolerate grasslands of smaller area with more human disturbance.  They seem particularly fond of horse stable hayfields.

Orchard Orioles - I used to think of them as rare & unusual, but no more.  They were in every block this morning, and I even found nests in several.  It just appears that they like late successional fields that are not very common in most areas of central Ohio.  Most field edges in the more intensively developed areas north and west of Columbus don't have the luxury of reverting slowly back to forest; they're either farmed or subdivided.  Thrashers, Chats, & Blue-winged warblers are also successional specialists, which explains their rarity close to Columbus.  Black-billed Cuckoos may also have this problem, because they may favor very late successional stages.

Rob Thorn
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