I went to Kiwanis Park and Twin Lakes, both parts of the "Preserves"  
overseen by the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, to clean and do  
maintenance on the Prothonotary Warbler nest box trails at each. My "second  daughter" 
Darlene who generally looks after these locations has lost her onetime  helpers 
and due to recent surgical procedures on her ankle, would get in trouble  
with me if she tried to work on the boxes, needed help and TLC. The storm did  
major damage to both trails and approximately one half the boxes have been  
destroyed. Hopefully the trails will recover faster than the 9th Ward in New  
Orleans - they looked almost as bad.
 
Bird activity was slow at each, but there were some good finds. At Kiwanis  
Park there was an Osprey that was doing better than a couple fishing from their 
 boat. I also observed many Yellow-rumped Warblers, a few Common 
Yellowthroats,  White-throated Sparrows and Swamp Sparrows. Then I went to Twin Lakes 
where  there was a second Osprey. On the mudflats there were a few Lesser 
Yellowlegs,  a Semipalmated Plover, a Spotted Sandpiper and many Killdeer. I headed to 
 the back area where the nest boxes are located and ran into many 
White-throated  Sparrows, a Pileated Woodpecker, a Barred Owl in the pine grove (I  
instructed it to hang around for Darlene's Christmas Bird Count on January 3rd),  a 
few Common Yellowthroats, 2 Magnolia Warblers and lots of Yellow-rumped  
Warblers. Then I got my reward for doing the nest boxes - less than 15 feet from  
me there was a bird sulking in some underbrush. It then hopped onto a bare  
branch in open sunlight and sat there for a short time for my enjoyment - a  
beautiful Mourning Warbler. It made me completely forget about my many  
multi-flora rose puncture wounds.    
 
Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve
& The Preserves
 
 
You  cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the 
habitat  in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will 
exterminate the  species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means 
that [we] have to  preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea 
itself. This is  vital not only for the preservation of animal life generally, 
but for the future  existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many  
people.
-Gerald  Durrell, The Nature Conservancy 
 
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