My family ventured south to this park in search of Spring, but found only the earliest hints of it.  The trees and wildflowers seem about 7-10 days behind schedule, and the birds seem to match that delay.  Hiking and driving around the forest and nearby Scioto River bottomlands found few birds different from what we could find around Columbus.  Notables included:

Great Blue Herons - the rookery along Three Lock Road is in full gear, with what looked to be 40 nests

Raptors - quite a few Turkey Vultures, but little else.  A red-shouldered Hawk was calling from one of the wooded hoolows along the North ridge road

woodpeckers - fair #s of the expected Downies & Red-bellies, but only 1 sapsucker and 0 Red-headed

creeper & kinglets - only 1 Brown Creeper and perhaps 6-8 Gold-cr.Kinglets made for a slow day

gnatcatchers - had birds at many different locations, so they appear back in force

warblers - had 1 singing Pine warbler and 4-5 Yellow-rumps, but they were work to find

E.Towhee - another bright spot, with lots of birds calling, especially in areas of greenbriar thickets

winter finches - had at least 2 Purple Finches calling around Stewart Lake, but no Pine Siskins anywhere(despite having 2 at our feeders in Gahanna early in the morning).

butterflies - few Cabbage Whites, but we did find 5-6 Zebra Swallowtails around the trails, along with lots of Dusky Wing skippers.

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