The last two days have been a weird mix of wintry weather & winter migrants here around Columbus. On Monday, I spent some time in Jefferson Township (far east side), checking several parks during the afternoon snow squalls. Tuesday, I hit the migrant traps of Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff, searching for migrants in the windless areas of the few parks and greenspaces of the area. Both days showed a preponderance of temperate migrants, with sapsuckers, kinglets, sparrows, and blackbirds topping the program. Highlights included: Red-headed Woodpeckers - adult birds were still hanging around Jefferson Township Community Park and Boehnke Preserve, though they should have departed by now Sapsuckers - no great numbers, but a steady trickle of these birds was present both days Hermit Thrushes - single birds at many different locations, even around parks in Grandview. Kinglets - Ruby-crowns & Golden-crowns split about even, with no great numbers of either, but often they were feeding low in the bushes or on the ground. Warblers - nothing but Yellow-rumpeds, but they were quite common out in the Township Sparrows - lots of Towhees, Field Sparrows, and Chipping Sparrows, added to the large numbers of White-throateds, made for a late-winter-like mix of birds Blackbirds - flocks of Red-wings at many locations, as they abandoned territories to flock for foraging in the chilly weather. More mysterious was a flock of 35+ Rusty Blackbirds at Hannah Farms Park on the edge of Jefferson Township; they were foraging along the edge of some vernal pools, and are very late for this species around here. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]