On this chilly start to May I stopped at several parks around this suburb northeast of Columbus, looking for migrants with mixed success. I started at Sharon Woods MetroPark and moved onto the nearby Alum Creek Trail at Heritage Park and Lake Otterbein, then moved over to Hoover Dam & spillway and nearby Inniswood MetroGardens. Migrant distribution was very spotty and no spot had a large fallout despite the propitious weather. Highlights included:
Flycatchers -- Great Crested & Phoebes were the only ones noted, mostly around Sharon Woods and the Alum Creek Trail Vireos -- Red-eyed and Warbling at multiple spots, but also had Yellow-throated (Sharon Woods) and Blue-headed (Inniswood) Swallows&Swifts -- huge flock hiding in the spillway of Hoover Dam, with large numbers of swallows feeding just over the surface of the water, and Chimney Swifts higher overhead. Swallows were mostly Cliff, with sizeable fractions of Barn and Tree, and a few Rough-winged. Wrens,Gnatcatcher -- not many of either, except for House Wrens, which were everywhere Thrushes -- only Wood Thrushes, mostly in the larger forest areas (Sharon Woods and Inniswood) Mimids -- only Catbirds, but they were fairly common and at nearly every site Sparrows -- Songs & Chippings widespread, but also had small groups of White-throats and 1 Swamp singing at Lake Otterbein Warblers -- scarce, with Yellow-rumps most numerous only because I ran into 2 flocks of them. Others were Nashville, Yellows, Yellow-throateds, and Black-thr.Greens, none very numerous.
One of the new features that should be appreciated is that Otterbein University has now made a dedicated parking area for Lake Otterbein, off Collegeview Road. Formerly, this great area was only accessible by a long slog along the Alum Creek Trail, but now we can park and walk right into the site. The trail passes between Lake Otterbein (a human-dug rockpit) and Alum Creek, where a small dam backs it up into a skinny lake. Below the dam is a good chunk of riparian forest accessed by several foot trails. With so many habitats in close proximity, it's a great spot for migration.
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