The hardy souls who braved the frigid weather this morning on the Columbus Audubon field trip to Westerville & Hoover Reservoir found more bird activity than we expected.  We started at Hoover dam, then went south to Blendon Woods (to thaw, check the feeders, and scan Thoreau Lake), and finished along the Alum Creek bikepath.  Highlights included:

Geese - large flocks of Canada Geese at all 3 sites.  The only unusual bird with them was a Snow x Ross Goose at Thoreau Lake, but geese were coming and going at all sites so that they will probably have a different set of birds tomorrow.  Thoreau Lake also had a Mute Swan.

Dabbling Ducks - Hoover dam was the best site, with huge #s of Mallards, plus a few Black Ducks, Shovelers, Gadwall, and American Wigeon.  Numbers changed quite a bit between morning and afternoon; for instance there were only a few shovelers and wigeon in the morning, but 38 and 20 were there in the afternoon.  A Green-winged Teal was also there in the afternoon.  Thoreau Lake had its usual horde of Mallards & Black Ducks.

Diving Ducks - lots of Hooded Mergansers were in the Hoover dam spillway, while 3 Goldeneye were also in this location.

Raptors - surprisingly few, but there was a Sharp-shinned Hawk that flew over Thoreau Lake and a Cooper's Hawk that flew along the Alum Creek bikepath.

Owls - the red-phase Screech Owl continues to hide in the top beam of the Alum Creek bikepath footbridge 1/2 mile south of Main Street.  There was a Great Horned Owl roosting in a short spruce at the northern end of nearby Cherrington Park.

Woodpeckers - plenty of Red-bellies and Downies, even a few drumming in the cold sunshine.  A Pileated flew by the Blendon Nature Center in the morning, while a sapsucker was calling from the Otterbein cemetery in the afternoon.

Brown Creeper - 1 was foraging along the Alum Creek bikepath.

E.Bluebirds - a few stopped by the Blendon Nature Center feeders, while 2-4 were foraging along the Alum Creek bikepath.

Sparrows - nothing terribly unusual, but there were fair #s of Tree Song, and White-throated at both the Blendon feeders and along the Alum Creek bikepath.  The Thoreau Lake feeder at Blendon had 2 E.Towhees.

Blackbirds - 10+ cowbirds and 1 grackle were hanging around the Nature center feeders in Blendon Woods.

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