Today was a beautiful day to get out. In the morning I did some general birding in Delaware County. On the way to meet some friends I started with a flock of Wild Turkeys on the west side of SR 3 across from the Arrowhead Golf Course. They were leisurely foraging in the open filed. The rest of the morning was spent exploring a great unspoiled parcel of natural habitat. At this site birds of interest I observed included: Wood Duck Hooded Merganser Red-shouldered Hawk Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Yellow-bellied sapsucker Blue-headed Vireo House Wren Winter Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Yellow-rumped Warbler Eastern Towhee Red-breasted Grosbeak On the way home in mid-afternoon I stopped at Area N of the Hoover Nature Preserve to check for new arrivals. The area was surprisingly active for the time of day. Most important to me was the arrival of the first male Prothonotary Warblers. There were five singing from exposed perches. The complete list of species observed at Area N was as follows: Pied-billed Grebe (1) Double-crested Cormorant (43) Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Geese Wood Duck (13) Mallard Hooded Merganser (4) Osprey (2) Bald Eagle (1 adult) Red-tailed Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk (1) American Coot (27) Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper (2) Bonaparte's Gull (13) Ring-billed Gull Caspian Tern (1) Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Chimney Swift Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (2) Downy Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker (2) Eastern Phoebe Warbling Vireo (2) Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper (1) Carolina Wren House Wren Winter Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Hermit Thrush (3) American Robin European Starling Yellow Warbler (3) Yellow-rumped Warbler (17) Yellow-throated Warbler (5) Palm Warbler (8) Prothonotary Warbler (5) Louisiana Waterthrush (1) Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird American Goldfinch Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve Delorme 58 C (2) & (3) ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]