We hiked the Dyers' Mill Trail along Little Darby Creek at the west edge of Battelle-Darby MetroPark yesterday afternoon. Windy conditions made birding the fields a waste, but the riparian corridor had a decent fallout. We also stopped at Prairie Lincoln Woods on the way home, and found a similar set of migrants stranded in this small woodlot. The DMT is one of the best wildflower hikes along the Darbies, and we had quite a few early flowers open or in bud. Bird notables in 1 hour on the DMT included: Pileated Woodpecker - 1 calling & drumming in riparian woods Sapsuckers - 4+, may have been more as we heard them often E.Phoebe - 2 along flooded creek Purple Martin - 1 flyover Winter Wren - 1 (they seem very scarce so far this migration) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 5+, including several singing birds Ruby-cr.Kinglets - 8+, fairly common all along riparian corridor Golden-cr.Kinglets - 20+ in several flocks Hermit Thrush - 2, but could have been more since there are many places to lurk here Brown Thrasher - 1 along field edge Yellow-thr. Warbler - 1 singing along riparian woods Yellow-rumped Warblers - 12+, mostly in one flock Louisiana Waterthrush - 1 near the old mill trace Field Sparrows - 5+, despite windy conditions in fields White-thr.Sparrows - 10+, much scarcer than we were expecting A 15 minute stop at Prairie Lincoln Woods (behind Prairie Lincoln Elementary on the far west edge of Columbus) found a similar cast of characters, including 5 sapsuckers, 2 E.Phoebes, 2 Rough-wing Swallows, 2 Hermit Thrushes, 2 Ruby-cr.Kinglets, 1 Gnatcatcher, and 6 Chipping Sparrows. The sapsuckers were all agitated by the presence of a perched Cooper's Hawk, probably with good reason since sapsuckers seem to be a prime target for these hawks. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]