With the little free time I could gather for the last two days, I birded several areas along this scenic creek just east of Columbus. It's a hidden gem, traversing rural & wooded areas of Plain twonship,New Albany, & Jefferson Township before cutting through downtown Gahanna to join with Big Walnut Creek. Despite having few parks or preserves, it's in good shape largely due to a good working arrangement between the Rocky Fork Creek Conservation Group and landowners along the creek. With permission, I was able to visit several areas along the creek and , despite the snow & cold temperatures, found good numbers of forest birds. Not only were woodpeckers & flock birds (chickadees, titmice, etc) in good numbers, but these numbers were being maintained without many feeders. There were also some notables, including: Hairy Woodpeckers - common, with 1-2 at nearly every stop Pileated Woodpecker - only 1, in the largest forest area along the creek Brown Creepers - a few at every stop, the only winter 'vagrant' with any numbers here. E.Bluebirds - flocks of 2, 3, and 5 at three different stops, fairly good numbers given the bitter weather Robins - nowhere common, but still plenty around scuffling for berries and digging in exposed leaf litter under trees & bushes Tree Sparrows - only a few; the cold weather does not seem to have pushed them down to central Ohio much Field Sparrows - a 'flock' of 6 at Thompson Park (one of the few public accesses to the creek) This area is one of the best for winter vagrants (Red-br.Nuthatches, winter wrens, winter finches, owls, etc.) close to Columbus, and their absence even in this cold, wintry weather says volumes about their food sources further north. I would wager that there are good numbers of these birds up in Michigan & Ontario. Rob Thorn [log in to unmask] EarthLink Revolves Around You. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]