After working over some blocks in southern Franklin & northern Pickaway County, I watched as the blustery weather made the afternoon useless for atlassing.  Instead I did a quick run-through of potential shorebird/wader locations, stretching from Stage's Pond north and east through Columbus.  It's still a bit early for good shorebird diversity, but some of the spots are shaping up quite nicely.  The sites and their birds:

Stage's Pond (the shallow one, not the deep pond) - - a muddy edge with 4 kildeer and little else.  There's still a lot of water here, and it will need to dry down much more to be a good shorebird/heron spot.

Cook's Creek Golf Course wetland (west side of US 23, just north of Walnut Creek) -- some mudflats with 10 kildeer, 1 Spotted, and 3 Semipalm Spr.  This spot can be very hit -or-miss, but its water levels looked promising, at least for the next few weeks.

Lowe's wetland (US 23 & I-270) -- overrun with dirt bikers, but still held 4 kildeer, 3 Great Egrets, and the leucistic Ring-billed Gull found there by Philip North.  This is one very pale gull, and only its size prevented me from calling it something rarer.  There was very little water here, and I doubt the recent rains did much to enlarge it.  It also takes a beating from the dirt bikers since it doesn't appear to be a mitigation wetland.

3-Creeks Borrow PIts -- 4 kildeer, 12 Great Egrets, and 3 Great Blue Herons,... and this pool will only get better as the water level drops.  It's still quite high with only a small fringe of mud.

3-Creeks Smith Farm Ponds -- 8 kildeer, 1 Spotted Spr, 1 Great Egret, 1 Great Blue.  These ponds are just behind the old Smith farm on Watkins Rd, and are a hidden gem.  I only surveyed the most open one, but it is the best one for shorebirds.

Chatterton Wetlands -- 26+ kildeer, 2 Spotted Spr, no egrets or herons.  Thes ponds have some good mudflats, and should be checked often this season.  The lack of waders speaks to an absence of large prey (fish, tadpoles), possibly becasue they've been well-attended by them earlier.


Rob Thorn
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