I visited areas west of Columbus looking for waterfowl migration, which
should start about now.  Of course, the big trick for these birds is to
find open water in such frozen conditions.  I stopped at Beaver Pond &
Darby Bend lakes at Prairie Oaks MetroPark, and all the ponds were frozen.
That just meant that all the waterfowl were hiding along Big Darby Creek
--- mostly geese, but lots of Mallards and a few Hooded Mergansers, too.
Landbirds were uninteresting except for a few Cedar Waxwings which were
hanging around red cedars.  Go figure.:-).

Thinking that areas closer to the edge of the suburbs might have more open
water, I ventured to a string of parks along the edges of Hilliard &
Dublin, starting at Franks Park, which has a nice large pond that was
mostly frozen, and working north through Reynolds Park, Homestead park,
Hayden Farms, Darree Fields, Trabue Park, Avery Park, and finishing at Lake
Corazon.  Most of these places had some open water, which had attracted
lots of geese & mallards.  Only Lake Corazon had enough open water to have
a good mix of waterfowl.  The list there included 50 geese, 40 mallards, 16
Trumpeter Swans, 80+ Redheads, and 12 Canvasback.

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