I always enjoy hosting a new birder at the Hoover Nature Preserve. They usually want to see Prothonotary Warblers and the birds generally are very cooperative. This morning was one of those days. I had an enjoyable morning hosting Tom Eshelman, a somewhat new birder who although living near the preserve had not seen a Prothonotary Warbler. His initial trip resulted in hearing but not seeing the Prothonotaries. I vowed to remedy that situation and offered to take him out at the preserve. We finished with sightings of 22 males and 13 females, and we had about 40 more males singing that we didn’t tract down. 
 
At the first stop I had a pair that was nesting at eye level. We kept a reasonable distance as we watched the adults fly in and out of the natural cavity with food for the now ravenous little mouths in the nest. The male sang constantly which is a neat trick with a beak full of caterpillar. The male approached the nest straight on whereas the female made a circular route that took her behind the opening before she would come to the entrance and go into the nest. While all this was going on we had 5 other males singing from all sides. A nice way to begin a day.
 
I took Tom to areas that are clustered near the Galena Village Square, i.e. Areas L, N and Wiese Road. The only thing outnumbering the Prothonotaries was the mosquitoes. The now pooled water is providing them with breeding habitat. I thought we had that covered by applying insect repellant but by not putting any on my face I managed to concentrate their attack. This was the first time this year they have been a problem but I’ll know better next time out. Everywhere we walked we were surrounded by singing Prothonotary Warblers and in most cases they obliged us by coming out into the open. There are always some that although you can clearly hear them and they are very close, they manage to blend into the foliage and taunt you. 
 
We actually made the effort to enjoy some of the other species that were present. These were highlighted by Osprey, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Indigo Bunting and Red-headed Woodpecker. I think both Tom and I were more than satisfied by our morning. 
 
Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve




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