I made a loop trip through Slate Run MetroPark, Walnut Woods MetroPark, and a pair of Canal Winchester parks along Walnut Creek, taking advantage of the glorious weather but seeing little that was unusual.  Many of the ground-feeding sparrows and larks were in low #s, possibly driven off by the snows earlier this month. I had stopped by Walnut Woods the prior evening looking for harriers & short-eared owls, but with no success.  Water was open or partially open at both Buzzard's Roost Lake and the wetlands in Slate Run, but all they held were Canada Geese.  Other notables included:

Red-tailed Hawks - not many, with the high of 2(!) at Walnut Woods
Kestrel - also low, with only 1, a bird along the Winchester Pike (which can be good for them)
Pileated Woodpecker - at least 1 along the 5-oaks trail at Slate Run
Horned Lark - surprisingly scarce, with only 2, both in the fields around Bareis Nature Preserve.
Golden-cr.Kinglet - 2 were in the spruces along the bikepath at Walnut Woods (Tall Pines area)
E.Bluebirds - 2 at Slate Run (5-Oaks), another at Canal Winchester's Ashworth Bridge park.
Yellow-rumped Warblers - fairly common along the 5-Oaks trail at Slate Run, with a total of 15.
Tree Sparrows - about the only common sparrow, with some at every stop.  Bareis had a flock of 30 in its sapling field.

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