Location Nationwide Plaza 1, Columbus, OH
In front of the home office of Nationwide Insurance, there is a large area of lawns, sidewalks, fountains, trees, and shrubs. This area turned out to be very productive. It yielded many common birds like Mourning Dove and House Sparrow, but I also saw warblers, wrens, and even our two chunky shorebirds, woodcock and snipe. I believe that the green space is an oasis in a concrete jungle, attracting migrating birds and nesters (juvenile robins and cardinals were a common sight in the summertime). Ten life list birds were recorded at this site, the first being Mourning Dove.
One of the challenges with birding in this area is that I couldn't really use binoculars. For one thing, the birding time was only during breaks during work, and I didn't want to fiddle with optics. Also, with all the security cameras and people around, I didn't think it was a good idea. However, since the area is relatively small, it was often possible to observe even skittish birds pretty close up. More on these later.
I eventually began keeping a separate list for this area, and I believe I got to about 50 species. I lost the list because it was stored on a flash drive that I accidentally destroyed. I wanted to use the list to try to qualify the area as an Important Bird Area (the Audubon thing). I thought it would be cool to have a relatively small area in the middle of the city make the cut. After losing the list, I gave up on the idea.
One thing that this area also produces is dead birds from window strikes. There is an atrium inside the building with exotic indoor trees and large windows, and there was one window that killed about a dozen birds per migration season. I even saved some of them for an Eagle Scout project studying bird strikes in urban areas. A common victim was the hummingbird.
The dove I saw on this day appeared to be gathering nest material. While rather late in the season, doves are known for having multiple broods, so this seemed plausible. We even had a couple of dove eggs laid on the ground in late summer in the mulch bed of a tree in our backyard. They were never incubated.
Cornell: Mourning Dove
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