Lee Underschultz
Firefly Hollow
Little Hocking,OH

I got a call from my birding buddy in Parkersburg, WV (just across the Ohio
river) telling me that the Purple Martins are back at her house. Probably
just the first scouts but they were checking out her Martin box.

I got out on the trails late again yesterday here but saw the
Yellow-Throated Warbler and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler. I saw an Ovenbird in
the usual hot spot for them. The Louisiana Waterthrushes have moved deeper
into the woods back by the waterfall. Watching the aoerobatics along the
creek after they first bobbed along the waters edge, flipping leaves and
then plunging their heads into the water after some miniscule treat kept me
entertained for a good 20 mins. before I had to move on. The bluebirds have
at least one egg in their nestbox.

Today brought a beautiful little Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher to see me as I
grabbed a few minutes to work in the garden. Dressed in his Easter best I
could see where they get the "blue" in their name. Fresh breeding plumage
and a black eyebrow with his bright white eye rings accentuated his spastic
flittering from branch to branch. Unfortunately I also saw my first cowbirds
of the season too.

I had all the dead trees cleared from the trails so if anyone wants to come
join us for a hike around the trails just e-mail me and we'll arrange a time
to get together. There are about 3.5 miles through the woods. Or you can
just spend time sitting by the creek. That's probably where most of the
activity occurs around here. Everything from Green Herons to Hawks to
warblers, tanagers, orioles, Song Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, Phoebes and the
regular feeder visitors (Cardinals, Golfinches, Titmice, Chickadees, etc.).
We are located 1 mile off of US Rt.50 about 35 miles southeast of Athens.
Our farm is in both Athens and Washington counties (95 acres total). I will
be participating in the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas 2 project and would
appreciate any help with the surveys here on our property. There has been no
data to date collected for this block of Ohio (for the OBBA2) so any info
will be helpful.

Lee Underschultz
Firefly Hollow
Little Hocking, OH
1.5 miles from the Ohio river

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