This morning I took time to check the water
level at Hoover Reservoir in the areas where I have my nest box trail. Up until
recently the water level had been at an unusually high level for late summer
and I really wasn’t able to begin maintenance of my nest boxes. During the past
week the water level has fallen so rapidly that it is like someone pulled the
plug in a bathtub. Along with my being able to begin cleaning nest boxes this
is also beginning to expose mudflats, though very meager so far. If there are
no heavy rains in the coming days there may yet be decent mudflats and
shorebirds at the north end of Hoover Reservoir in September.
Bird activity was surprisingly productive in
Area N. Some of the more interesting observations include the following:
Double-crested Cormorants – Many perched on
available snags and swimming near the boardwalk.
Herons – Along with many Great Blue Herons
there were 7 Great Egrets and 5 Green Herons.
Ducks – 2 Blue Teal and a lone Wood Duck.
Birds of Prey – 2 adult and 1 juvenile Osprey
flying near the nest platforms and perching in dead trees, 1 immature Bald
Eagle soaring over the boardwalk.
Shorebirds  - meager findings limited to 2 Killdeer , 1 Spotted Sandpiper and a
Greater Yellowlegs, working the limited mudflat along the edge of the old road.
Gulls
and Terns – a couple dozen Ring Bill Gulls and 4 Herring Gulls on the boardwalk
railing, plus 2 Caspian and 1 Black Tern flying around the water off the end of
the boardwalk.
 
Hummingbirds -  a lone female Ruby-throated working on a
trumpeter vine’s flowers.
 
Kingfishers – 4 Belted Kingfishers,
3 near the old bridge base in Area N and 1 on the boardwalk railing.
 
Woodpeckers – 6 of Ohio’s 7 species
were observed. Only Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was missing. Highlight here were
10 Red-Headed Woodpeckers made up of adults and juveniles. A pair of Pileated
Woodpeckers was active in the dead trees off the old road in Area N.
 
Flycatchers – Several Pewees and
Phoebes and one each of Eastern Kingbird and  Olive-sided, the latter flitting off and back
continuously from a prominent perch.
 
Vireos – Mostly absent with one a
single Red-eyed and a single White-eyed.
 
Swallows – Only 4 Barn Swallows.
 
Mimics – 3 Gray Catbirds. 
Waxwings – 18 Cedar Waxwings working flora
with berries.
Warblers – Several surprises here. First, I
only saw 2 species. Where are the migrants? Are Blendon Woods Metro Park’s
insects that much better? But back to the positive starting with 2 Northern Water
Thrushes. One of them kept coming closer as I phished until it was only about
two feet from my face. This was the best look I ever had of the species. The
other stayed further back but still fairly close.
The other species was my Prothonotary
Warblers. I first spotted the male and phished to get its attention. Next I
spotted the female with a caterpillar in her bill. When I followed her flight
to a large buttonbush I discovered 4 young waiting for mom and a snack. Last
year Logan Kahle and I observed a pair with fledglings on August 15th,
this pair is finishing up even later. My first guess is that they are a pair
whose nest was flooded out during the June 25 heavy rain and they re-nested
afterward. Usually most if not all the Prothonotary Warblers have gone south by
now.
Charlie
Bombaci
Hoover Nature
Preserve


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