Visited Slate Run wetlands (Pickaway Co., south of Columbus) this morning with Philip North, hoping to find some unusual sparrows.  We found a good diversity of temperate migrants, with a lone Pine Siskin flyover as the best bird, but no unexpected sparrows.  A brief summary of our sightings:

Herons - surprisingly few, with single Great Blue Heron and Great Egret.  This paucity was even more unusual since the water level was low, and there were lots of frogs and tadpoles still out.

Waterfowl - also surprisingly scarce, with a few geese, 4 Coots, and a small flock of 8-10 Green-winged Teal.

Raptors - several Turkey Vultures were gliding over the wetlands, along with a lone Sharp-shinned Hawk soaring over the parking lot.

Shorebirds - 50-60 Kildeer and 1 Pectoral Sandpiper.  There was lots of mudflat here, but few unusual shorebirds present.

Wrens,Kinglets - a Winter Wren in a windbreak here was unusual, while small numbers of both kinglets were more expected

Bluebirds, Pipit - 5 E.Bluebirds were feeding in a small berrybush near the parking area, while a lone flyover American Pipit was a seen further out along the wetland dike trail

Sparrows - loads of common species, with double-digit #s of Song, Field, Swamp, Chipping, White-throated, and White-crowned.  A few Lincolns were about as rare as we could find, despite a fairly careful search of the wetlands.

Blackbirds - small flocks of Redwings were flying south all morning, perhaps 150 total in 2 hours.  There were also a few Cowbirds and Grackles as well, but no Rusties yet.

Finches - along with the lone Siskin were a few small groups of Goldfinches and a scattering of House Finches.

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