We hiked the Dyers' Mill Trail along Little Darby Creek at the west edge of Battelle-Darby MetroPark yesterday afternoon.  Windy conditions made birding the fields a waste, but the riparian corridor had a decent fallout.  We also stopped at Prairie Lincoln Woods on the way home, and found a similar set of migrants stranded in this small woodlot.  The DMT is one of the best wildflower hikes along the Darbies, and we had quite a few early flowers open or in bud.  Bird notables in 1 hour on the DMT included:
Pileated Woodpecker - 1 calling & drumming in riparian woods
Sapsuckers - 4+, may have been more as we heard them often
E.Phoebe - 2 along flooded creek
Purple Martin - 1 flyover
Winter Wren - 1 (they seem very scarce so far this migration)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 5+, including several singing birds
Ruby-cr.Kinglets - 8+, fairly common all along riparian corridor
Golden-cr.Kinglets - 20+ in several flocks
Hermit Thrush - 2, but could have been more since there are many places to lurk here
Brown Thrasher - 1 along field edge
Yellow-thr. Warbler - 1 singing along riparian woods
Yellow-rumped Warblers - 12+, mostly in one flock
Louisiana Waterthrush - 1 near the old mill trace
Field Sparrows - 5+, despite windy conditions in fields
White-thr.Sparrows - 10+, much scarcer than we were expecting

 A 15 minute stop at Prairie Lincoln Woods (behind Prairie Lincoln Elementary on the far west edge of Columbus) found a similar cast of characters, including 5 sapsuckers, 2 E.Phoebes, 2 Rough-wing Swallows, 2 Hermit Thrushes, 2 Ruby-cr.Kinglets, 1 Gnatcatcher, and 6 Chipping Sparrows.  The sapsuckers were all agitated by the presence of a perched Cooper's Hawk, probably with good reason since sapsuckers seem to be a prime target for these hawks.

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