This morning Al Lasala joined me and we cleaned and did maintenance on my nest boxes at Dustin Road (Area L) of the Hoover Nature Preserve. I have 25 nest boxes at the Dustin Road location. Prothonotary Warblers nested in 11, which is 1 more than I was aware of, and I identified 5 natural cavity nest sites during the nesting season, giving Dustin Road 16 total identified nest sites in 2008. On the down side I had a first at nest box D-25. The first Brown-headed Cowbird intrusion in one of the nest boxes. The nest box contained 5 unhatched Prothonotary Warbler eggs and 1 unhatched Brown-headed Cowbird egg. The next closest box had a Prothonotary Warbler nest and it is possible that the warblers abandoned the first nest and started over. Al got to witness first hand some of the surprises from cleaning the nest boxes. One box contained a Little Brown Bat and several hosted Deer Mice, both are secondary users after the nesting season. When I was removing the old Prothonotary warbler nest from box D-9 the current resident Deer Mouse shot out like it was fired from a cannon and more or less bounced off me like a ball in a handball court. While cleaning the boxes we saw a Ruby-throated Humming Bird, Spotted Sandpipers and Green Herons on the now beginning to emerge mudflats at Dustin Road. It was a quiet but productive morning. Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 ) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]