Today Steve Jones and his daughter Theresa drove down fro La Rue to spend the day looking for photographic opportunities. Steve and I met earlier this year when we were both at Big Island Wildlife Area while viewing the Wilson's Phalaropes and Black-necked Stilts. It proved to be an interesting day as we tried to get a good sight line first at a Green Heron nest, and later at a Sharp-shinned Hawk nest. Like kids everywhere, these were camera shy. The Green Herons required some dexterity to get in a position to have a straight line to shot from. Initially one of the hatchlings was on the nest and the others were on the branch behind it. When we were getting set to take pictures they all tried to hid behind a cluster of leaves near the nest. This was comic as their bodies were somewhat well hidden, but their beaks and feet were sticking out in all directions. The result resembled a scrambled kaleidoscope. It will be interesting to see how the pictures come out. When we got to the hawk's nest everyone was hunkered down and we could only see the top of one hatchling's head. Again Murphy's Law was at work, ergo, if there is one branch or group of leaves, it will be exactly where it will block your camera sight line. After moving around to every possible place to stand we managed to find the best spot to try to take pictures from. After a short time one, then two heads popped up and down. Okay but not what we really were looking for. Then one of the adults swooped in and left a ready made dinner. Activity picked up in the nest and now there appeared to be at least three chicks in the nest. I'm not sure whether it was a statement of opinion or coincidence, but the largest chick got into a position that NASA would call a "moon shot." We took multiple pictures and I'm hoping they have much of the chicks and little of the branch. We later went to the boardwalk at Area M to take shots of the Osprey. An adult was busy feeding the nestlings. This is a distant shot and likely will have small images. While on the boardwalk a male Prothonotary Warbler flew onto the rail and stood proudly in the sunlight. He then moved to a near branch and we shot away with our cameras. This was followed by a tasty meal at Jules in Galena and then we were off to Old Sunbury Road. Eventually it got hotter, we got smarter, and called it a day. Some species we observed during the day are: Double-crested Cormorant Green Heron Wood Duck Osprey Sharp-shinned Hawk Eastern Kingbird Red-eyed Vireo Cliff Swallow Brown Thrasher Cedar Waxwing Yellow Warbler Prothonotary Warbler Indigo Bunting Baltimore Oriole Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve **************Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com! (www.tourtracker.com ?NCID=aolmus00050000000112) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]