Park at the public parking spots around the larger pond and walk the path around it down to the dam, checking the lakes for waterfowl and herons.

The large trees with the tiny cones here are European Alders (this is one of the original sites of their introduction to central Ohio) – check them for siskins and goldfinches feeding on the cones. Also, take time to walk the paved path below the dam. It winds along the creek flowing from the lake in a narrow greenbelt for over half a mile and attracts a great diversity of birds. Keep an eye out for raptors here; Cooper’s, Red-shoulders, and Red-tails all nest nearby and are often easily found in winter here.

 This enclave village west of Westerville Road occupies an old amusement park plot, and still has some remnant of the old oaks that covered the site. In the middle are two ponds formed by a dam along a tributary creek of Alum Creek; check them for ducks and geese, and the fringe of alders can hold goldfinches and siskins most winters. The large oaks along Minerva Park Drive and Lakewood Drive that flank the stream in the middle of the village are worth a look for flock birds and the resident Cooper’s Hawks. You can reach both streets from the footbridge along the dam at the base of the ponds.