This morning Shaune Skinner, Kitty McLaren and I launched the HMS Hoover, Shaune’s boat, to look for Prothonotary Warblers on the islands and at locations along the shore of the upper part of Hoover Reservoir that I cannot access by foot. With banner [ BIRDERS ON BOARD] waiving in the wind we went forth with visions of Prothonotary Warblers dancing in our heads. With the beautiful weather today we had to contend with an armada of boats filled with individuals fishing. I hold no ill feelings that often they were anchored where there was prime Prothonotary habitat and therefore we couldn’t check close for our golden jewels. They, the fishermen, were there because it is also prime habitat for good fishing. We located 18 new Prothonotary Warbler territories during the morning. Many of the territorial males presented themselves nicely, perching in the open, in the sunlight, and reared back their heads singing. So far I have confirmed just over 100 Prothonotary Warbler territories at the Hoover Nature Preserve and areas outside it at Hoover Reservoir. I still have five areas that I haven’t checked at all yet and I need to do follow-ups in all the other areas where I have nest boxes. Species located by boat today included: Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Geese with goslings Wood Duck with ducklings Mallard with ducklings Osprey - there appears to be two pairs at Hoover Reservoir this year Red-tailed Hawk 0AKilldeer Spotted Sandpiper Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Chimney Swift Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Eastern Wood-Pewee Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch House Wren Eastern Bluebird American Robin Gray Catbird European Starling Yellow Warbler Prothonotary Warbler Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve ______________________________________________________________________ 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]