I spent 2 morning hours of this last day of August searching for migrants at Whittier  & Berliner Parks along the Scioto River south of downtown Columbus.  Herons put on a better show than migrant landbirds, which still seem scarce hereabouts.  Highlights included:

Herons:  7 Great Blues, 23 Great Egrets and 3 Green Herons were all around the lagoon area by the old boat ramp (now all spruced up for the new park).  The water was really too deep for the Greens, but they were flying around chasing one another, and one sat on floating debris for a while.

Hummingbirds - I ran across 5-6 in just under 2 hours, which is a good number here, suggesting that they are on the move.  Two of them were actively gleaning insects, a sure sign of migratory fat-seeking behavior.

Flycatchers:  1 Acadian & 3 Pewees were all that I could find of these early migrants.  There was little in the way of fallout here.

Warbling Vireos:  10+ singing birds scattered between the 2 sites was a healthy number, 'tho not much higher than the summer census here.

Warblers:  not a single one.

Aside from the temperature, the elevated hummingbirds and missing orioles, I could've mistaken this for a summer day.  The gathering of herons is quite impressive, and should persist for a week or so.


Rob Thorn
[log in to unmask]
EarthLink Revolves Around You.

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]