Today was supposed to be a work day in which I would clean and repair nest boxes and do some work on the OBBA project. I kept running into people I knew and the work part of the plan deteriorated quickly. The final straw was when I met Judy Richardson and a friend of hers and we began discussing the nesting Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We all ended up at the site of the hummingbird nest where we birded through what should have been lunch. It was worth it with the good company and active birds. I did get some work done early at the Twin Bridges area. The upper reaches of the coves have decent mudflats and there were a variety of shorebirds present. When I walked to the back area to get to the nest boxes I managed to turn a Great Horned Owl, Scarlet Tanager, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. At the area of the nest boxes there were a couple of Prothonotary Warblers still hanging around. I exited by walking along the edge of the mudflats where I observed Killdeer, Spotted Sandpipers, Sempalmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers and Solitary Sandpipers. The mudflats are becoming extensive at the Area M boardwalk, the cove at Dustin Road and all along the east shore of the upper reservoir. The shorebirds are comparable to the list John Kuenzli posted Friday. I ran into John Friday as I was cleaning and doing maintenance on the nest boxes in that area. John had the better deal as he was birding and I kept to my work. It was John that banded Prothonotary Warblers for me in 2004. Back in Area N with Judy and her friend, we went to the “sitting log” and enjoyed the show. This quiet back area can be full of surprises as today showed. The nesting Prothonotary pair has fledged their young, but there are still a few Prothonotaries flitting around along with the Northern Parula's who were calling from the sycamore trees. A few Parula's dropped down to provide us with a look, but the Cracker Jack prize went to the Cerulean Warbler that decided to make an appearance. They nested across the creek and I heard them often this spring and summer, but I only got occasional sightings of them. And the hummingbird is still there, but with the leafs around the nest it was impossible to tell if the hatchlings fledged or were still in the nest. My species observed today included: Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Canada Goose Wood Duck Mallard Turkey Vulture Osprey Cooper’s Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Killdeer Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Ring-billed Gull Caspian tern Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Great Horned Owl Barred Owl Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren House 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 Louisiana Waterthrush Scarlet Tanager Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Charlie Bombaci Hoover nature Preserve Delorme 58 C (2) & (3) ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour ______________________________________________________________________ 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]