Today I took advantage of the cooler temperature to survey an area with rugged terrain in the Hoover Nature Preserve for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II. I took along pruning shears to fight off the multiflora rose, whereas I really could have used a machete. Then there was the trading through the muck along the feeder streams into Big Walnut Creek. My efforts were rewarded though as the area produced 5 new Prothonotary Warbler nest sites, a Northern Parula male gathering insects, 2 Yellow-throated Warblers, a singing Hooded Warbler, a Cerulean Warbler, another Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nest with the female on the nest, a Belted Kingfisher tunnel, a Pileated Woodpecker nest cavity, and 2 Great Horned Owlets. Scott Albaugh commented yesterday about the unexpected great surprises that can be found when working a block for the Breeding Bird Atlas. I’ve been out surveying my 6 blocks daily during the past two weeks and the activity has been excellent and has produced some real surprises of which an American Bittern tops my lists. Any birder that thinks things get dull after May needs to participate in the survey. Have fun and help with an important survey of Ohio’s birds. Species I observed today were: Great Blue Heron Green Heron Canada Goose (with goslings) Wood Duck (with ducklings) Mallard (with ducklings) Turkey Vulture Red-tailed Hawk Killdeer Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Great Horned Owl (2 owlets) Ruby-throated Hummingbird (sitting on nest) Belted Kingfisher (at nest tunnel) Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Acadian Flycatcher (active nest) Great Crested Flycatcher (at nest cavity) Eastern Kingbird (on nest in low Black Willow over water) Tree Swallow (feeding young in tree cavity) Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Cedar Waxwing European Starling Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Cerulean Warbler Prothonotary Warbler (feeding young at natural cavity) Louisiana Waterthrush Kentucky Warbler Hooded Warbler Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Eastern Towhee Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole 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]