Date: 2/7/26 4:52 pm From: Robert Thorn <robthorn6...> Subject: [Ohio-birds] 3 dams north of Columbus,2-07-26: waterfowl,SnowBuntings,Longspurs
With snow, ice, & cold temps still the rule here, I spent the morning crawling around the dam areas of Hoover & Alum Creek reservoirs, and tied on the Westerville Alum Creek low-head dam for good measure. Both big dams, and even the small one, had waterfowl in the open water below them, with the large spillway at Hoover having the big flock. I also stopped at Oxbow Island to see the swans at the small lead south of the island, embedded in another large flock of geese. Each site had its own specialties.
Hoover is still frozen above the dam, so all the activity was around the spillway, which included large numbers of geese & mallards, along with good runs of Gadwalls, N.Shovelers, Redheads, Scaup of both species, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and Common & Hooded Mergansers. A modest flock of Ring-billed & Herring Gulls was here, but no sign of the Lesser Black-backed seen earlier. Landbirds were pretty limited by the deep snow cover, but a cluster of Bluebirds was cool.
Oxbow Island is frozen in except for a stream lead 100 yards off its southwest shore. This open water had another big flock of geese, as well as small numbers of both Trumpeter & Tundra Swans. It also contained Mallards and a few other ducks. Also notable were 3 juvie Bald Eagles perched & soaring around the opening.
Alum Creek Lake Dam & spillway is the hot ticket in town, with the baited snow buntings & longspurs at the top of the stairs, on the top of the earthen dam. Quite a few birders were making the trek up in the half hour I was there. Just be prepared for bracingly cold wind. The spillway also had geese, mallards, buffleheads, coots, and Hooded Mergansers.
The Westerville Alum Creek low-head Dam had more things than you might expect. The creek above was frozen, but below was open and had herons, mallards, Black Duck, and Hooded Mergansers. Lake Otterbein was frozen, but the field south of it had yet another big flock of geese, and the forest edge between the lake and the creek had quite a few birds, including a Mockingbird and lots of woodpeckers.
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