With a lack of measurable rain and hot weather, the water level at the  north
end of Hoover Reservoir is finally showing signs of receding. Not enough
habitat exposure to attract shorebirds, but enough to end excuses and start
cleaning and doing maintenance on my nest boxes. The current motto is step
carefully and lightly. The mud is still very moist  and you can easily sink  as
shown by the tracks a raccoon left. It apparently got out about 10 feet when  it
sank in the mud up to its stomach. I could see the claw marks as it tried to
hold its ground, turn around and make it back to more solid ground. I'm glad I
didn't hear what the raccoon had to say when it got back to the bank. I did
though make a mental note to only work on nest boxes with stable turf under
them.

I cleaned many nest boxes and collected territory markers along Old Sunbury
Road. This area hosted 17 nesting pairs of Prothonotary Warblers in 2008. The
amount of material the Prothonotaries put in the nest boxes to raise the nest
 level before building the cup is a testimony to their persistence. I also
cleaned out the stick mess the House Wrens left in the nest boxes they used.
But  I got rewarded for my work as there were some nice birds present along  the
east shore. I found an immature Bald Eagle and 2 Osprey near the Eastshore
Yacht Club. At the north end of the old road off the second bridge I located  2
adult Bald Eagles and another Osprey. Soaring out over the water were 7
Caspian Terns and on the stumps in the water were 40+ Double-crested Cormorants.
On the long island off the pine grove I located 4 Great Egrets, and in the
grove  itself there was a Barred Owl. Along the old roadbed I located 3
Yellow-billed  Cuckoos, Indigo Buntings and a Carolina Wren with an attitude. Throwing
in the  other usual suspects I tallied 47 species along the road while
cleaning the nest  boxes. Absent however were the Prothonotary Warblers. They are
winging it south  to their wintering grounds in Central and South America. Except
for a few  stragglers they should be gone until next spring.

The prediction is for mild weather the rest of the week, a good time to
clean nest boxes. Thirty down, 220 to go.

Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve




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