The 5 hardy field trip participants to Columbus Audubons' urban Scioto trip were treated to a real winter experience (and then were able to head home to the warm comfort of their armchairs....or the fire in Grandview.)  The river at Greenlawn is mostly frozen except for several open areas in the 1/2 mile below the dam.  Crowded into this area were

280 + Canada Geese
1 Snow Goose
100 Mallards
70 Black Ducks
3 Ring-necked Ducks
4 Bufflehead
14 Common Goldeneye
8 Hooded Merganser
1 Pied-billed Grebe
1 Cormorant
22 Great Blue Herons
30 Ring-billed Gulls
1 Herring Gull
2-3 Bald eagles (all adults)

Even the trail and woods here were interesting, with flocks of Juncos, White-thr.Sparrows, Robins, chickadees, 8 Downy Woodpeckers, 8-9 Brown creepers, 5+ Golden-cr.Kinglets, and 1 Carolina Wren.  For such a cold morning, this was a very lively place.

We then drove over to Greenlawn cemetery looking for winter finches.  Although the White-winged Crossbills were seen earlier in the morning, we came up empty on them. Consolation prizes included 1-2 MERLIN (seen in Area X and in the far south of the cemetery) and 2 Sapsuckers.  While juncos were abundant here, tree-loving finches like House finches, goldfinches, and crossbills were virtually absent, possibly due to the merlin(s).

______________________________________________________________________

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]