I'm beginning to think Ohio has a monsoon season. How else to explain the amount of rain for the months of April and May. I have found both advantages and disadvantages to this trend as I monitor my nest box trail at the north end of Hoover Reservoir. The Prothonotary Warblers using nest boxes benefit from the high water level as it deters most predators, the exception being northern water snakes. Those using natural cavities have a mixed bag. If they use an old woodpecker cavity they remain high and dry, but some chose low snags, and several of these have been flooded out. It is early enough that they will likely try again. For me it makes it more difficult to slog through the backwaters as I can't see where all the downed trees are, the water is deeper and the flora is growing so fast and large that I think they are on steroids. Surprisingly I'm encountering fewer mosquitos rather than more. Apparently the water is too high and has too much current for them to breed. Today I checked my boxes at Mudhen Marsh, Oxbow Road and made a stop at Hoover Meadows. Most of the boxes at Mudhen Marsh are on the north side of Big Walnut Road with a few along the channel on the south side. The wooded area is almost completely under water and I found several Prothonotaries using old woodpecker cavities far from the normal water's edge of the reservoir. Many of the forest nesters I normally encounter here were totally absent. I made a quick visit to the south side of Big Walnut Road, this is the section the public usually visits, and I observed a nice selection of species there. Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Brown Thrasher, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Red-headed Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Indigo Bunting and Scarlet Tanager. Oxbow Road continues to be overrun with fishermen. Prothonotary Warbler numbers appear to be down from averaging 6 to 8 pairs annually at this site to only three singing males today. I've never seen so many people here in the past. There is constant encroachment on the nest boxes and Oxbow Road may never be as easy for finding Prothonotaries as it has been in the past. The road had many Gray Catbirds, Baltimore Orioles, Warbling Vireos and a few Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats and one Yellow-billed Cuckoo made an appearance. Hoover Meadows made the day interesting. The trail is home to a very slick fungus. Walking on it was like walking on a greased board. I walked the path back to the third pond and back. The highlights were a Black-billed Cuckoo at the break from the first to the second field and an Olive-sided Flycatcher perched in the bare tree near the second pond. Some other species observed included Red-headed Woodpecker, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Eastern Kingbirds, Eastern Meadowlark; Savannah, Field, Swamp, Song and a lone Lincoln's Sparrows, Willow and Acadian Flycatcher, and Orchard Oriole. 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]