I hid from the frigid wind this morning by visiting several woodlands east of Columbus.  Almost all of them had lots of bird activity, which shows that sheltered habitats are still good even in these very cold days.  I stopped at Gahanna Woods, Jefferson Township Park, and Hannah Farms.  Notables included:

Red-headed Woodpeckers - 2 were at Jefferson Township Park, while another 3 were at Hannah Farms Park.  This comes after many have been sighted near the intersection of Clark State Rd and Reynoldsburg-New Albany Rd for several weeks since being found in the vicinity by Dick Miller's Jefferson Township team on the Columbus CBC.  This general vicinity has lots of oak-dominated woodlots, and seems to have attracted a nice number of these handsome woodpeckers.

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1-2 of these little birds were calling in the pine woods just south of Gahanna Woods Nature Preserve (in the city park as opposed to the State Nature Preserve).  They've also been there a while, so it should be a good site to search for them over the next month.

E.Towhee - they always seem to come out of the woodwork when it snows.  Two were at Jefferson Township Park, while another 2 were at Hannah Farms.  In both instances, they were hanging around conifer patches where they could find bare ground; apparently their scratching doesn't work so well when the ground is icy.

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