With only part of the morning free, I focused on this corridor in southern Franklin County. The objective was to check several oak groves south of Grove City (Henceroth and Fryar Parks, Seeds & Burgett Roads), then visit some of the parkland along Darby Creek between Harrisburg and Darbydale, particularly the Pleasant Valley and Osprey Lake accesses of Battelle-Darby MetroPark. The hope was for early neotropicals, but the cool morning kept it to temperate migrants. Notables included:
Waterfowl - little out of the ordinary other than a few Pied-billed Grebes in isolated ponds (Youngs Rd, Pleasant Valley, Osprey Lake) indicating some migration.
Sapsuckers - only a few, with singles at Fryar Park and Pleasant Valley.
Swallows - 16-20 Trees were buzzing around Pleasant Valley, while Osprey Lake had 2 FOS Rough-wings
Kinglets - a few lingering Golden-crowns were at Henceroth and Fryar, while my FOS Ruby-crown was along Gay Rd near Harrisburg
Thrashers - scarce near Grove City, but quite a few around Harrisburg; Pleasant Valley had 1 and Gay Rd had 2 song-dueling
Larks, Pipits - Horned Larks were widespread, while Pipits were not: 2 of the latter were flying and landing in a field along Burgett Rd
Warblers - hardly any, with only 5 Yellow-rumps at Osprey Lake
Sparrows - singing Savannahs were at several locations along Youngs Rd, and a Vesper was singing along Burgett Rd. Both Field and Chipping Sparrows were abundant and widespread
Blackbirds - 8-10 Rusty Blackbirds were calling and foraging in the oak woods along Burgett Rd. I was tipped off by watching them wade in roadside puddles; is there any other backbird that will do this?
Finches - small groups of House Finches and of Goldfinches at several locations, but no Purple Finches or siskins
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