I spent part of the morning looking for migrant ducks & landbirds at this wetland complex SE of Columbus. Dabbling ducks have arrived in force, but diving ducks are still largely absent. Landbirds featured good numbers of temperate migrants - Robins, kinglets, blackbirds, and LOTS of sparrows. Highlights included
Herons - surprisingly few, with only 5 Great Blues and 1 Great Egret
Dabblers - all of the regulars, including Mallard, Black, Wood, both Teals, Shovelers, Gadwalls, AmericanWigeon, and Pintail. Only Mallards and Green-winged Teals were present in large numbers. Wood Duck marsh was the best spot, as recent rains have re-flooded it, and the ducks were shoulder-to-shoulder in it, scrambling for food items.
Divers - only a small flock of Lesser Scaup were on Ellis Pond
Other waterfowl - no cormorants yet, but there were 4-5 Pied-billed Grebes and a flock of 60+ Coots in Teal Pond.
Raptors - good variety, with Turkey Vultures most common (18+), but also seeing Sharp-shinned, Coopers, N.harrier, Red-tails, and Kestrel.
Shorebirds - hardly any, with a few Kildeer and 8-9 Greater Yellowlegs. No Snipe, which was surprising given the wet areas I visited. Many of the areas were only 'superficially wet', being flooded by the recent rain but still having hard bottoms (I sloshed across several wetlands that would've mired me after a few weeks of wet weather.)
Sparrows - good numbers of many migrants, including Savannah (12), Field (24+), Song (50+), Swamp (24+), Lincolns (10+), White-crowned (50+), and White-throated (60+). I also had a Fox Sparrow right around the Wood Duck parking area. I looked for rarer Ammodramus sparrows in several areas, but most of the marshy areas had been so dry this Summer that smartweeds had been replaced by grasses.
Blackbirds - sizeable flocks of Redwings at most stops, mostly females & juveniles. Smaller numbers of grackles and cowbirds, but I couldn't find any Rusties yet.
Other landbirds - small flocks of Robins at most spots, but few other diurnal migrants (waxwings, jays, pipits, etc.). Yellow-rumped warblers were widepsread, and there were also single Palm warblers at several locations, including the headquarters and the Wood Duck pond parking area.
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