Blacklick Woods
Metropolitan Park

To get there: take I-70 in Columbus to the north exit at Brice Road. Proceed north on Brice Road to Livingston Avenue and turn east. The park is about one mile distant.

The forest areas of this large park are laced with paths that wind through lowlands of swamp forest with white oak, pin oak, bur oak, and silver maple trees. Typical trees of the higher ground include beech, sugar maple, white ash, black cherry, hickory, white oak, and red elm.

Between the several parking lots, there are groves of trees, playgrounds, and expanses of grassy parkland. Vantage points for birding are the clearing around the Beech-Maple Lodge, the nearby parking spaces and small pond, clearings within the woods, and an old roadway between the woods and the golf course. In spring and summer, scan the golf course for Killdeers, Upland Sandpipers, and Barn Swallows. Overhead, look for American Kestrels, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered hawks.

Frequently seen April and early May migrants include the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker; Eastern Phoebe; Red-breasted Nuthatch; Winter Wren; Brown Thrasher; Hermit Thrush; Eastern Bluebird; Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets; Solitary Vlreo; Blue-winged, Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped, Pine, Palm and Black-and-white, warblers; Louisiana Waterthrush ; Rufous-sided Towhee, Chipping Field, Fox, Song, Swamp, White-throated,and White-crowned sparrows, Rusty Blackbird, and Purple Finch.

Some representative nesting birds to look for are Wood Duck; Red-tailed and Red-shouldered hawks; American Kestrel; Yellow-billed and, more rarely, Black-billed cuckoos; Pileated, Red-bellied, and Red-headed woodpeckers; Eastern Kingbird; Great Crested and Acadian flycatchers; Eastern Phoebe; Eastern Wood-Pewee; Northern Mockingbird; Brown Thrasher; Wood Thrush; Eastern Bluebird; Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; Cedar Waxwing; Red-eyed Vireo; Yellow Warbler; American Redstart (uncom mon); Common Yellowthroat; Yellow-breasted Chat; Northern Oriole; and Scarlet Tanager.

Eastern Screech-Owl and Great Horned, and Barred owls are year-round residents in the deeper woods; American Woodcock perform their courtship flights each spring over the fields east of the Interpretive Center.

The Interpretive Center is located within the Walter A. Tucker Nature Preserve at the end of the main driveway. The Center has one-way windows for viewing bird feeders and a sizeable pond. In late afternoon, white-tailed deer frequently feed close to the windows.