I birded several areas around Alum Creek Reservoir, as well as a new park
just south of there (McCammon Creek), then drove over to parks along the
Olentangy River valley (Seymour Woods, Smith Preserve, Sycamore Run, and
Shale Hollow).   Some scarce winter residents were not so scarce today,
leading me to think the winter residents are already migrating north.
Notables included:

Waterfowl - surprisingly scarce, with only Mallards & Geese widespread.
SummerRidge access on AlumCreek Lake did have some divers: Bufflehead and
Common Goldeneye

Shorebirds - 1 lonely Killdeer was in the spillway of the Alum Creek lake
dam
Gulls - small numbers of Ring-bills all along the east shore of the
reservoir, along with a few Herring Gulls

Vultures - a scrum of 12 Black Vultures was feeding on a carcass along
Africa Rd just south of Cheshire Rd;  3 flew over the Cheshire boat ramp,
probably to join their colleagues.

Woodpeckers - nothing unusual, but did have Pileated drumming at both
Seymour Woods and Shale Hollow

Kinglets - had Golden-crowns in multiple locations, so they may be on the
move
HermitThrushes - 1 was at the Alum Creek Dam, while 2 more were at New
Galena boat launch
Mimids - a Mockingbird was at McCammon Creek, but even more unusual was a
Catbird along the Alum Creek dam just west of Africa Rd

Warblers - only Yellow-rumps, but they were regular in the successional
forests along the east shore of Alum Creek Lake (where there is lots of
poison ivy, not coincidentally)

Sparrows - lots of small flocks of White-throats at many spots, so they
might be moving.   Tree Sparrows, on the other had, might be mostly gone,
as I found only 1 (at Shale Hollow)

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