After spending the majority of my time during the past week monitoring new blocks for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II and assisting Jackie Bain with programs with the kids at Gallant Woods Preserve in Delaware County, I was back on home ground at the Hoover Nature Preserve to monitor the progress of the Prothonotary Warblers. It was a comfortable morning to stroll along Old Sunbury Road and the area around the Eastshore Yacht Club. Of course that’s if you stay on the level defined path that is the old roadbed. To monitor the nest boxes I follow the shore and wade to the nest boxes, duck tree limbs and fight with multiform rose. I did use the road on the return walk to the car.



The Prothonotary Warblers are at the stage where they are fledging the nest everywhere. It’s a little like watching fluffy popcorn hiding in the button bushes. I located 6 adults and numerous fledglings at the cove by the Eastshore Yacht Club and along Old Sunbury Road I located 21 adults and oodles (new technical birding term) of fledglings. Some of the nest boxes are, or have been used by Tree Swallows and House Wrens along this area. Since there are houses closer to the water here than many areas with nest boxes, the wrens occupy a higher percentage of my boxes along this stretch.



I always seem to find the unexpected while monitoring the nest boxes. Today this included a nesting pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers that I hadn't notice before; the discovery of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo on i
ts nest (the nest is as well constructed as my projects in wood shop during Junior High - use at your own risk); and what may be an indication that there was a second Osprey nest at Hoover Reservoir this year. I watched an adult (or adults?) fly into a large cottonwood tree with fish in talon several times. I couldn’t get a clean line on the location without taking a swim so I deferred any conclusion until the trees loose their leafs. Will Santa have a nest of large sticks waiting for me? Most years one could walk along the shore already and get close, but with the recent rains Hoover Reservoir’s water level is at near peak depth. This last fact probably means we won’t have good shorebird habitat at Hoover until September unless it gets hot and dry the rest of the summer.


Observations today included:

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Canada Goose and large goslings

Wood Duck hens with ducklings in tow

Mallard

Osprey

Bald Eagle (1 adult)

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Killdeer

Mourning Dove

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Chimney Swifts

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Great Crested Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay

American Crow

Tree Swallow

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Barn Swallow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Eastern Bluebird

Wood
Thrush

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Brown Thrasher

European Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler  (27 adults and “oodles” of fledglings)

Common Yellowthroat

Chipping Sparrow

Field Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Indigo Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Baltimore Oriole

House Finch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow



Charlie Bombaci

Hoover Nature Preserve

　

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