Subtitle this post as 'the migrants that never came down'. Two mornings' visits to urban 'migrant traps' around Columbus have shown a strange, spotty migration so far, with some migrants common, others absent, and totals nothing like the variety seen south or north of us. Yesterday I spent lunch hour roaming around Grandview Heights, a respectable trap NW of downtown Columbus, while toady found me further north, in the Upeer Rush Ravine section of Worthington, another well-forested neighborhood that pulls in migrants. ON neither day did I see a big fallout of neotropicals, but there were still good numbers of temperate migrants. Highlights included: Raptors - no migrants to speak of, despite the big totals up at Lake Erie. Grandview had a resident Cooper's Hawk, while a nesting pair of Red-shouldered Hawks in Rush Run were trying to fend off some mobbing crows. Woodpeckers - fair numbers of Flickers at both sites, plus single sapsuckers at each. Both of these species are likely migrants at these sites, as would be Red-headed (of which I found none). Flycatchers - nothing, not even Phoebes Vireos - nothing at Grandview, but a singing Blue-headed and White-eyed were around Rush Run today. Wrens - a few House Wrens were at both sites, along with a few Carolinas Thrushes, Mimids - little, other than many Robins and a lurking thrasher at Grandview Kinglets - good numbers of Ruby-crowns (6 in an hour in Grandview, 7 in an hour at Rush Run), but not a single Golden-crown at either site Warblers - very few, with a few Yellow-rumps at both sites, plus singing Nashville & Black-thr.Green at Grandview yesterday. They clearly were either flyovers or just not around. Sparrows - a different story, with large #s of White-throated Sparrows (60 in Grandview, 45-50 in Rush Run), along with respectable numbers of Song, Chipping, FIeld, and even a few Swamp sparrows. Not to mention 2+ towhees at each site. Grosbeaks, Buntings - not a single one. What gives? It would appear that neotropical night migrants, like warblers, grosbeaks, bintings, vireos, just are not showing up here in any numbers yet. This is despite many reports of them, often in number, from down in Shawnee or up at Erie. I would have assumed that they were 'flyovers' except that todays rainy overcast weather -- perfect for fallouts-- failed to ground very many of them. On the other hand, sparrows and kinglets have been abundant. Perhaps they're much less likely to have long 'overflights', or maybe they just need to stop and feed more often during migration. 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]