To contrast yesterdays trip to urban ravines in Columbus, I visited two almost-rural ravines further up the Olentangy River, in Delaware County.  I stopped at Seymour Woods Nature Preserve and Shale Hollow Park, but didn't have enough time to visit Highbanks Metropark or Deer haven Park (both of which also have wild ravines).  Neither Seymour Woods or Shale Hollow has close-by houses or feeders, and both had their streams largely frozen over.  Both had good numbers of woodpeckers - Seymour even had a Pileated - , but small flock birds like chickadees were scarce in both ravines.  Oddly, both ravines had small flocks of fruit-eaters - Robins in both, E.Bluebirds at Seymour - that may have been less in evidence in the urban ravines because they weren't flocking there.

Sometimes, though, you go looking for one comparison and find something completely unexpected.  Shale Hollow, a new Preservation Parks preserve, doesn't just have a ravine.  It also has a replanted prairie field close by US 23, and this meadow is one of the few intact grassland habitats in this area of Delaware County.  It's attracted a veritable horde of wintering sparrows.  In 5 minutes walking through 3 acres, I had 16 Tree Sparrows, 10 Song Sparrows, 2 Field Sparrows, and 1 Swamp Sparrow.  This was quite a different set of sparrows from the White-throats & Juncos that were common in the urban ravines (and present in low numbers at Seymour).  This prairie patch may prove a good trap during the rest of the winter, and should probably be monitored regularly during Spring migration.

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]