Today I was joined at the preserve by Jim and Louise Casto. They made the trip up from "Wild Wonderful" West Virginia with the primary objective to see some of the Prothonotary Warblers at the preserve. We didn't get started until noon and birded for the better part of the afternoon. Usually this is the quiet part of the day, however someone forgot to tell the Prothonotary Warblers. Throughout the afternoon they treated Jim and Louise to a show. We had many great looks including a male at Old Sunbury Road that landed right in front of us and acted like a competitor on American Idol. To add to his performance he was one of the males we banded in 2004. The location is within 100 feet of where he was initially banded. His back-up group was a pair of Yellow-billed Cuckoos whose territory appears to overlap his. Some of the other species we observed during the afternoon were Baltimore Orioles, Wabling Vireos, Yellow Warblers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Osprey, Red-eyed Vireos, Cedar Waxwings, Belted Kingfishers and Cliff Swallows. For the latter I stopped at a nesting location and we observed the swallows as they flew into the nesting areas directly under us. From an advantage point above the birds you get to really realize how colorful they are. 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]