Two members and a guest took to the roads of the Greater Columbus area to explore some of the many parks and wildlife refuges in the area.  We started at Glacier Ridge Metropark at the Honda Wetland Education Area boardwalk.  Our morning started off with a bang by seeing both Sora and Virginia Rails. Both rails were close up and afforded us multiple great views. What a delight!  The park also has substantial grasslands which host Boblinks, Meadowlarks and Grasshopper Sparrows in the summer. We plan on coming back earlier next time in the hopes of seeing some of those species.

From Glacier Ridge we moved on to Hoover Reservoir.  Due to a closed bridge and detour causing us a delay, we made only one stop at Hoover.  We visited the Galina boardwalk area where we saw Osprey, Green Heron and various sandpipers.  We stayed in the area and ate at the Mudflats Grill.  The closed bridge caused us to bypass visiting the Oxbow area which we hope to visit next time. 

From Hoover we traveled down to Pickerington Ponds Metropark.  We first explored a couple areas of Ellis Pond and then moved on to Blue Wing Pond in the late afternoon. Most of the shorebirds were at Blue Wing Pond.  Hopefully we will have more time to spend there during our next trip!  Some of the birds seen at Pickerington ponds included Blue-winged Teal and Wood Ducks, Spotted, Solitary, Semipalmated and Pectoral Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. Some shorebirds remained unidentified.My hope is to bring more experienced spotters during our next trip! 

All in all we identified 46 species. Following is the complete group’s list: