While making a trip out to Darby Creek, I stopped at several spots in Grove City (a SW Columbus suburb) and was rewarded with a mix of blackbirds. Henceroth and Fryar Parks had small numbers of Common Grackles, and Fryar had a group of 5 Rusty Blackbirds in its oak forest. The recent rains had made it very swamp-like, and oak swamps are apparently one of the preferred winter habitats for this species. The bigger payoff was along nearby Beatty Road, where a mixed flock of 3000 blackbirds was foraging through corn stubble. Common Grackles & Redwings comprised about 1000 each, while Cowbirds & Starlings split the other 1000. Try as I might, I couldn't pull out any rare blackbirds from the pile, but the flock will probably stay in the vicinity for a while if someone else wants to sort through them. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]