The few hardy souls on the Columbus Audubon Ducks of the Darby field trip were treated to peeks at early spring migrants - waterfowl, ducks, & blackbirds.  In reality, though, the trip turned into Ducks of Dublin, since a reconnaissance showed most of the Darby ponds & wetlands still frozen.  We worked our way northeast, through the Hilliard Ponds, the GlacierRidge Honda wetland, Lake Corazon, and (by myself afterwards) to O'Shaughnessy Dam.  Best spots were Lake Corazon & O'Shaughnessy.  Highlights included:

Canada Geese - large flocks on the move.  Honda wetland had 350+, while Lake Corazon had 280+
Dabblers - scarce other than Mallards.  DarbyBendLakes had a flyover flock of Pintail, while Cosgray Ponds (Hilliard) had a few Gadwalls.  A few Black Ducks were with the mob at Honda wetlands
Redhead - flocks in many different locations; Lake Corazon had the high with 140
Canvasback - at least 2 were mixed with ducks & geese at the Honda wetlands
Lesser Scaup - small flocks in many locations; Lake Corazon led again, with 25
Ring-necked Ducks - also widespread, with no very big numbers other than 30 on Lake Corazon
Bufflehead - 4 were on Lake Corazon
Long-tailed Duck - 1 female was with the throngs of divers at Lake Corazon
Hooded Mergansers - 6-8 were in the Cosgray Ponds (Hilliard)
Horned Grebe - 1 was tucked in at Lake Corazon

Gulls - huge flock was around the ice above O'Shaughnessy Dam, with 1100+ Ring-bills, 150+ Herring, and 1 adult Lesser Black-backed, presumably the bird that has been here off & on for over a week.

Brown Creepers - rather scarce, with only 1-2 along Big Darby Creek
Horned Larks - hard to find; I only saw 2 in the fields along Scioto-DarbyCreek Rd
Tree Sparrows - still had 2-3 hanging around the Multi-use trail at Glacier Ridge
E.Meadowlark - 1 was singing in the prairie at the entrance to Sycamore Plains area at Prairie Oaks MetroPark
Redwing Blackbirds - nice overflight of migrant flocks at Darby Bend Lakes early, with 400+ headed north between 9:15 - 9:45

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