I birded around the east side of Columbus today, picking up some new year
birds for 2014. Here's the highlights:

South Park in Westerville: red screech-owl at the bridge in its usual
location. Nothing else out of the ordinary there, a few geese and mallards
on the river, with a great blue heron, and a few of the common winter
songbirds in the bushes.

Blendon Woods: Was hoping for turkeys but I could find none. No out of the
ordinary birds at the feeders - a Cooper's Hawk has been buzzing the nature
center, though. Thoreau Lake had the usual deep winter swarm of Canada
geese, black ducks, and mallards, with a few American Wigeon and Redheads
thrown in to spice things up.

Hoover Dam: Below the dam were a large number of mallards and shovelers. a
pair of wigeon and several Gadwall rounded out the dabblers, and a flotilla
of Bufflehead with a trio of Hooded Mergansers were floating in the basin
below the dam. Above the dam were several hundred Canada Geese and more
Hooded Mergansers, along with about a dozen Herring Gulls mixed in with the
Ring-bills. No uncommon waterfowl were present.

Pickerington Ponds: All water appears to be frozen over. A couple of
White-crowned Sparrows were in attendance at the Wood Duck picnic area
feeder, but otherwise pretty dead.

Blacklick Creek: Hordes of birds at the nature center feeders, including a
Red-winged Blackbird and lots of House Finches. I was hoping for a Fox
Sparrow or a Purple Finch, but couldn't turn any of the Song Sparrows or
House Finches into those species. One of the resident Barred Owls was
present on the Maple Trail (thanks to Mike Horn for directions). I also had
an Eastern Towhee calling on the same trail.

Greenlawn Cemetery: I arrived during a feeder re-fill, and there wasn't
much going on elsewhere in the cemetery, so I didn't stick around too long.

Greenlawn Dam at Scioto Audubon: I scanned the wooded edge of the water for
night herons with no luck, but did have 13 Great Blues around the areas of
open water. A young Bald Eagle flew over, but not much else of note.

Finally, I made a visit to the Olentangy River at OSU, where in previous
years, was pretty much a gimme for night herons. Not any longer, as I had
suspected. The river bank is now too far away from the brushy areas, and no
herons were to be found. I suspect that this location will no longer be a
good spot for them to roost in the future. The question, of course: Where
did they go?


Good birding,
Andy Sewell
Columbus, Ohio

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