Today we took advantage of the nice weather and put the HMS Hoover out to sea, well at least on water, and worked southeast along the reservoir shoreline in search of Prothonotary Warbler territories. With the exception of the cove near Windale Farms Circle there are no nest boxes along this stretch. We covered the shore from the Twin Bridges Boat Launch south to Lake of the Woods. Covering this area is like studying a Thomas English Muffin. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore with appropriate habitat for Prothonotary Warblers. The good weather also brought out a regatta of boats with fishermen, a condition that prevented us from checking some areas we planned to visit, but we coexisted peacefully and were rewarded with Prothonotaries in almost every location we could get close to. With today’s additions we have now identified slightly over 100 Prothonotary Warbler territories at Hoover Reservoir. Friday we will again cast off to check a few areas we have yet to get to but it is looking like another productive year for our golden jewels at Hoover Reservoir. The boat was basically buzzed by a couple of male Prothonotaries, one of which seemed to circling us with a declaration that we were on his turf. But he was outdone by a Pileated Woodpecker that could best be described as strafing the boat. We spotted an active Pileated nest cavity with junior sticking his head partway out. He ducked down and “D” played a pileated call on her cell phone AP thinking he would look out. Instead from nowhere came dad calling loudly with a low flyby that could have been a scene from the movie Pearl Harbor. I spotted an adult Bald eagle carrying a good sized fish in its talons. We have yet to find anything resembling an eagle’s nest at or near Hoover Reservoir, but every year, all year long, for the past five years or so I have Bald Eagles at the reservoir. All the local eagle nest sites I am aware of have good areas to forage that are closer than Hoover Reservoir. I keep wondering if there is a nest site that has somehow gone undiscovered. We have two pair of nesting Osprey. A Bald Eagle would be a wonderful addition. We also located another Red-headed Woodpecker nest cavity. There is currently at least 14 pair of nesting Red-heads in the Hoover Nature Preserve. Last week we had two severe thunderstorms. During our monitoring today I observed lots of fresh damage to trees along the east shoreline. I made my last stop Area N to see if there was damage to the nest boxes. Someone is looking out for the Prothonotaries as the nest boxes there appear to have been spared, but with several very close misses there might be a few neurotic birds hunkering down. Below is a list of some of our more interesting observations from today. Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve 2011-06-12 Hoover Reservoir SE Shore Bird List Double-crested Cormorant Green Heron Wood Duck Osprey Bald Eagle Red-headed Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Willow Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Cliff Swallow Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher Cedar Waxwing Blue-winged Warbler Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Prothonotary Warbler Common Yellowthroat Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee Indigo Bunting Baltimore Oriole ______________________________________________________________________ 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]