Hoover Reservoir, Area M Mudflats and Area N, Delaware County

I spent much of today cleaning my nest boxes at the Hoover Nature Preserve. With the water level at 13 feet below normal all sorts of critters are discovering the nest boxes. The most common have been deer mice and little brown bats. If you want an indignant look just accidentally drop a little brown bat in the mud. I used a stick it could grip to lift it and put it back in the box. I think it’s their version of Holiday Express before they hibernate. But the best comedy routine for the day was a deer mouse that leaped out of a box when I lifted the swing side. It alit on the ground and ran into my backpack holding my tools. I tried to convince it to come out with gentle taps on the side of the backpack but it kept huddling and looking back with big eyes. I finally had to resort to using the shaped clothes hanger I use to extract old nests from the nest boxes. It was like using the shepherd’s crook in a vaudeville show to remove a bad act from the stage. After I got it out of the backpack it froze in place, probably thought it was dinner, then it ran for cover with a feet don’t fail me now dash. This all occurred in the area between the Area M boardwalk and the old road in Area N. The mudflats there did have some decent activity, the best being a flock of about 65 Dunlin. I also observed a lone Red Knot and a group of about 15 or 16 Pectoral Sandpipers. Later I ventured into Area N to install 6 new nest boxes closer to the road to hopefully attract Prothonotary Warblers to where visitors can get good looks at them next spring.

Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve


Species seen in Areas M and N in the forest area and the mudflats:
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret (only 1)
Turkey Vulture
Osprey (1 immature)
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer (many)
RED KNOT (1 individual)
Pectoral Sandpiper (15-16)
DUNLIN (65)
Bonaparte’s Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Red-headed Woodpecker (4)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (2)
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow (just a few)
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird (2)
European Starling
American Pipit
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch



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