Hiked around these two MetroParks southeast of Columbus this morning looking for early neotropical migrants, mostly in vain. ALso stopped at locations in Cnal Winchester & Lockville, so the theme of the morning could be the upper reaches of Walnut Creek & its tributaries. Most of these areas are very good accumulators of early migrants; the ravines area of Slate Run may be the most underrated birding area in central Ohio for diverse landbirds. Highlights this morning included: Raptors - few, with only a handful of Turkey Vultures, a calling Red-shouldered at Slate Run, and a displaying Cooper's Hawk at Chesnut Ridge. No obvious migrants today at all, which was quite surprising. Woodpeckers - good numbers everywhere, with lots of drumming. Slate Run had 3 sapsuckers, while CHesnut Ridge had only 1 Kinglets - many Golden-crowns at Slate Run, while Ruby-crowns were more common at Chesnut Ridge Swallows - still small numbers of Barn, Tree, & Rough-winged at several locations Thrushes - no Swainson's yet, but 5 Hermit Thrushes were lurking along the 5-Oaks trail at Slate Run Mimids - singing Brown Thrashers at may locations including two pair at Slate Run Warblers - best was a singing American Redstart at Ashworth Bridge park in Canal Winchester, but also nice were 4 singing La.Waterthrushes in the ravines at Slate Run and Yello-throated warblers at several locations. E.Towhees - positively abundant, with 8+ singing in an hour of trail time at Slate Run , and many scattered at other sites as well SParrows - lots of singing Chipping at many locations, while Field sparrows were most abundant in the wild forest edges of SLate Run. 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]