I spent the morning visiting parks along Big Walnut Creek and Alum Creek in north Columbus & Westerville, scouting for both the Columbus and Hoover CBCs. The wild berry crop is phenomenal in many places, with honeysuckle, buckthorn, hackberry, and Callery Pears dripping with fruit. This made fruit-eaters the star of the morning, with lots of Robins, Waxwings,and White-throated Sparrows. Other highlights included: Waterfowl - pretty slim pickings, other than the expected Mallards and Geese. 1 Bufflehead was on Schrock Lake in Sharon Woods, while the lakes around Heritage Park and Otterbein Lake had only geese. Woodpeckers - loads of common varieties, but also had Pileated and sapsucker at 2 locations Mimids - lots of Mockingbirds, but they were eclipsed by a late Catbird lurking in Innis Park. There should be more of them around with this glut of berries. Larks - flyover Horned Larks were at 4 different locations, as the very last vestige of landbird migration Creepers - no great numbers, but they were at 3 different locations Wrens - Carolinas were abundant, the product of a good year. There was also a single Winter along Big Walnut Creek at Woodside Green Park Sparrows - picking through the hordes of White-throated Sparrows found a few Tree Sparrows, 2 Fox Sparrows (Innis Park & Heritage Park), and 1 Field Sparrow (Sharon Woods). Finches - no Purple Finches, but a few Siskins were around Tanager Woods and Sharon Woods. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]