This morning I had the fun of taking a new birder, John Marcos, to see Prothonotary Warblers at the Hoover Nature Preserve. John met me at my place and we headed to Oxbow Road which has the closest of my nest boxes to the house. As soon as I opened the car door the first sound was "sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet." It took all of two minutes to score a "lifer" for John. In spite of the fishing activity the Prothonotaries were fairly active. In the short time we spent at Oxbow I located 4 males on territory and a pair at their natural cavity nest site. Other birds (I do occasionally look at other birds -- honest) at Oxbow included numerous Baltimore Orioles and Gray Catbirds, and fewer Common Yellow-throats, Yellow Warblers and Warbling Vireos. I next took John to Area N in Galena. We remained on the main path and did not venture into the back 40. From the first vernal pool to the deep water break in the trail we scored 11 more Prothonotaries. I phished to bring one in closer for John and it landed within 6 feet of him, then proceeded to alternate between foraging and singing. This male was pure ham strutting his stuff much to John's delight. Other species of note along this section were Baltimore Orioles, Warbling Vireos, Eastern Kingbird and the Osprey who were both at the platform as the hatchlings were being fed. The final swing was Vans Valley and Miller Paul Roads. A Ring-necked Pheasant crossed in front of the car and almost became dinner on Vans Valley Road. At Miller-Paul Road I took John to a location where he could view Purple Martins (many) and Cliff Swallows (just a few). It is interesting to find Cliff Swallows at this location which is not the habitat you would expect them to be found at. It is easy to overlook something like this as there are Barn Swallows present, but when both perch on the same wire you quickly realize that you have a two-for for your bird list. Charlie Bombaci ______________________________________________________________________ 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]