I got out again today to recover from the storm damage at the preserve. It's amazing how the wind simply snapped trees of all sizes. We lost some trees that had to be 200 years old. It's like losing old friends. I checked the damage at Wiese Road first today. Eight nest boxes were down along with their trees. I was able to recover and reinstall six, but the other two were beyond recovery. There were many shorebirds along the mudflats at Wiese Road but I wasn't able to do much identification as the shoreline was to the east and the sun left me with silhouettes and not much more to work with. A rough guess would be yellowlegs and an assortment of peeps. The American White Pelicans on the other hand were impossible not to identify. All five were peacefully perched on a snag between Wiese Road and the boardwalk at Area M. I didn't get to the boardwalk to determine the status of the Marbled Godwit or the Wilson's Phalarope. There were a few scattered warblers at Wiese Road including Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Wilson's, and American Restart. Also observed a Red-headed Woodpecker and an immature Bald Eagle. My next stop was to check the damage at Dustin Road (Area L). The old road resembled the low hurdles at the Olympics. Going up and over with a backpack of tools was a workout. Five nest boxes were down in this area and I was able to recover all and reinstall them. On the small peninsula there was a flurry of activity, mostly warblers, for about ten minutes and then all got quiet. It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. I then spotted the reason, a Sharp-shinned Hawk looking for a snack. The warblers here were the same as at Wiese Road, plus both Blackpoll and Chestnut-sided. I next looped my way around the point and headed up Little Walnut Creek to clean and maintain the nest boxes there. At the edge of Little walnut Creek southeast of the trestle there are some new mudflats and feeding there were 11 Willets and 2 yellowlegs. They caught my eye quickly when several flexed their wings and that defining white wing stripe appeared. Somehow I managed to have only two nest boxes down along the creek. Both were recovered and reinstalled. Since I headed up the creek along the shore I was unaware of the tree carnage along the path. I used the old roadbed to return to the car and I constantly had to detour into the woods to go around the large trees that fell across the path. I didn't see much warbler activity at this location, only a few American redstarts. It was a productive morning as I now stand at 190 nest boxes cleaned and renovated and only 60 to go. Of course many of the last 60 are in areas that required me to be part mountain goat. The worse will be those in the far recesses of the coves at Twin Bridges. It's a mile back to them and the elevation rises and falls by over 100 feet as you go through the ravines. That will be a two bottles of water hike. Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that [we] have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is vital not only for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many people. -Gerald Durrell, The Nature Conservancy **************Looking for simple solutions to your real-life financial challenges? Check out WalletPop for the latest news and information, tips and calculators. (http://www.walletpop.com/?NCID=emlcntuswall00000001) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]