Adam Cirone helped me with my nest box maintenance at the Hoover Nature Preserve this morning and we threw in some extra birding in the afternoon. It can be difficult to keep one’s mind on doing nest box maintenance when migrating bird activity drops in your lap. Although numbers were not high, we did have an interesting variety of species.

We began our morning cleaning nest boxes at Mud Hen Marsh. For reasons unknown the number of nest boxes used at this location was down in 2009. Adam got indoctrinated into the world of nest box surprises when he opened a nest box and the fleeing Deer Mouse literally bounced off him during its escape. We ran into many Deer Mice, usually singe individuals, but at least three nest boxes were being sublet as the honeymoon suite. One Deer Mouse actually seemed to look indignant at our intrusion.

The water level at the north side of Big Walnut Road has fallen enough to expose some semi-decent mudflats. There were many Wood Ducks, some Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper and a few small peeps too far off to identify sans a spotting scope. We did encounter a few flourishes of warblers with the following species: Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Cape May, Black-throated Green, Blackpoll and American Redstart.

We next made a quick run to Oxbow Road. Things were generally quiet at this location. There were low numbers of warblers on the island including: Nashville, Magnolia, Black-throated Green and American Redstart. We also had a Yellow
-throated Vireo. This provided an excuse to break for lunch.

We ate in Galena and then ventured into Area N. Mudflats are slowly growing on the reservoir side of the roadbed. Scanning the mudflats we located the following shorebirds: Semipalmated Plover, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpiper and a lone Short-billed Dowitcher. We then checked the forested area for warblers and located Nashville, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green and American Redstart.

Our final stop was to check activity along the northeast shore mudflats near Pelican Island. The mudflats at this location are somewhat better than the other areas and activity seems to be picking up there. Shorebirds observed were Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper and Least Sandpiper. We also encountered a very cooperative Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

Although the number of birds wasn’t very high, I’ve now got 64 nest boxes cleaned (only 186 to go), saw some nice birds and Adam provided great company and a helping hand.

Charlie Bombaci

Hoover Nature Preserve

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