This morning I
headed into the back section of Area N in Galena (Delaware County) to clean and
do maintenance on my nest boxes and see what migratory activity was present.
With the water level finally falling at Hoover Reservoir I was able to walk
rather than wade to my nest boxes. This is a real help as it speeds the process
up considerably. When the water was high I had to use a walking stick as a
probe for sunken trees or risk tripping over them, an adventure that is never
fun. Today I could see where the trees have gone down and move about much
faster without the fear of a Saturday night mud bath and a great loss of poise
and ego. Birders covered in mud do not get hugs.
I have 60 nest
boxes in Area N. This includes the newly located nest boxes that were assembled
and installed with the help of the Ohio Young Birders Club. The kids helped me
recover from the damage done by the June 29, 2012 storms. The kids will be
delighted to learn that in a stretch along Big Walnut Creek I found
Prothonotary Warbler nests in 12 of 31 new nest boxes that they helped to
install. I wish I would find this high a concentration of nest box usage all
through the Hoover Nature Preserve. I have now cleaned and maintained 80 out of
250 nest boxes. I’m getting there if ever so slowly. Surprises were few today
with Deer Mice in only two nest boxes. I did find a couple of small snapping
turtles, about an inch and a half long.
As for bird
activity, the area on the reservoir side of the old road that runs south from
Front Street in Galena over to the boardwalk had some peep sandpipers working the
exposed mudflats. Most activity there was limited to Killdeer, but there were
small sandpipers scurrying over the mudflats. Without a scope I did not get a
good look at what species were present. Great Egrets continue to populate this
area as well as the exposed mudflats at Area L (Dustin Road). The best activity
was in the swamp forest along Big Walnut Creek. I took time to check out what
was there and observed 10 species of wood warbler including Tennessee,
Nashville, Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Blackpoll, Black and
White, Redstart, Wilson’s and Cape May. The year’s Red-headed Woodpecker young
are flitting about with the adults as I tallied 8 Red-headed clustered near the
southern most section of Area N. Big Walnut Creek is presently very low and the
Belted Kingfisher were taking advantage of this as I counted 5 working a
stretch where the fish present were sitting ducks for them. I spotted a late
Red-eyed Vireo and two Philadelphia Vireos but other than American Robins I
didn’t see any thrush. 
Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve

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