After spending the majority of my time during the past week monitoring new blocks for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II and assisting Jackie Bain with programs with the kids at Gallant Woods Preserve in Delaware County, I was back on home ground at the Hoover Nature Preserve to monitor the progress of the Prothonotary Warblers. It was a comfortable morning to stroll along Old Sunbury Road and the area around the Eastshore Yacht Club. Of course that’s if you stay on the level defined path that is the old roadbed. To monitor the nest boxes I follow the shore and wade to the nest boxes, duck tree limbs and fight with multiform rose. I did use the road on the return walk to the car. The Prothonotary Warblers are at the stage where they are fledging the nest everywhere. It’s a little like watching fluffy popcorn hiding in the button bushes. I located 6 adults and numerous fledglings at the cove by the Eastshore Yacht Club and along Old Sunbury Road I located 21 adults and oodles (new technical birding term) of fledglings. Some of the nest boxes are, or have been used by Tree Swallows and House Wrens along this area. Since there are houses closer to the water here than many areas with nest boxes, the wrens occupy a higher percentage of my boxes along this stretch. I always seem to find the unexpected while monitoring the nest boxes. Today this included a nesting pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers that I hadn't notice before; the discovery of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo on i ts nest (the nest is as well constructed as my projects in wood shop during Junior High - use at your own risk); and what may be an indication that there was a second Osprey nest at Hoover Reservoir this year. I watched an adult (or adults?) fly into a large cottonwood tree with fish in talon several times. I couldn’t get a clean line on the location without taking a swim so I deferred any conclusion until the trees loose their leafs. Will Santa have a nest of large sticks waiting for me? Most years one could walk along the shore already and get close, but with the recent rains Hoover Reservoir’s water level is at near peak depth. This last fact probably means we won’t have good shorebird habitat at Hoover until September unless it gets hot and dry the rest of the summer. Observations today included: Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Goose and large goslings Wood Duck hens with ducklings in tow Mallard Osprey Bald Eagle (1 adult) Cooper’s Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Killdeer Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Chimney Swifts Ruby-throated Hummingbird Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Barn Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren House Wren Eastern Bluebird Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Yellow Warbler Prothonotary Warbler (27 adults and “oodles” of fledglings) Common Yellowthroat Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird 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]