I stopped by several areas around Battelle Darby Creek MetroPark this morning, focusing first on late migrants along the river corridor (Trail of Ancients, Cedar Ridge), then checking the wetlands along Darby Creek Drive for waterbirds.  Neither spot held anything extremely unusual, but there were some interesting birds and it was a great morning to be out.  Notables included:

Bald Eagle - an adult bird was patrolling the silo wetlands, scaring off the small flocks of Mallards that were around there.  Park Naturalist Tim Taylor had mentioned this bird hanging around the wetlands for a while now, so the days of easy waterbirds may be over.

Sharp-shinned - 1 flew by the sledding hill, a good vantage point for migrants at the Darby confluence

Harriers - several were still sectoring the marshes in both the Silo wetlands and the Kuhlwein wetlands

waterfowl - little other than the aforementioned Mallards.  This is one of the few days here that I failed to find geese.

shorebirds - zilch, despite muddy margins at all of the wetlands

Pileated Woodpecker - 1 was calling in the riparian woods along the Trail of the Ancients.

Marsh Wren - 1 was lurking in the cattail marsh just north of the Kuhlwein parking area

Horned Larks - 6 flew by the sledding hill, while more were around Darby Dan airport

Sparrows - the Kuhlwein wetland had all the action, with 4 Tree, 3 Savannah, 1 White-crown, and 4 Swamp, along with lots of Songs

Lapland Longspur - 1 was a flyover at Trail of Ancients, my FOS

E.Meadowlark - 1 was hanging around the Silo wetlands

Blackbirds - only Redwings, and not many of them, with small flocks flying south past Trail of Ancients and the sledding hill

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