This morning I played mountain goat as I checked activity on the east side of Big Walnut Creek. This area is quite rugged compared to the west side of Big Walnut and has almost four times the acreage. It has steep hillsides, backwater swamp forest, feeder streams, hardwood forest and the creek edge. There is a very thick canopy throughout from Sunbury Road to the reservoir giving hundreds of acres of suitable habitat for Prothonotary Warblers. I counted 37 male Prothonotaries and 13 females during my stay. There are now hungry hatchlings to be fed at many nest sites so I’m seeing an marked increase in the presence of the females. The numbers make the trek through water, mud and insects worth it. It seems that this may prove to be a bumper year for the PROWs. Even I can’t live by PROWs alone and the other bird activity was good and quite diverse. Green Herons were in good numbers and I suspect that if I could see through the foliage better I likely walked under at least a couple of their nest sites. Near the reservoir I observe several Osprey soaring about, one adult Bald Eagle and a Black Vulture among the numerous TVs. I spotted a Wood Duck hen as she exited a cavity in a dead tree. A lone Spotted Sandpiper was bobbing as it went along a log at the water’s edge. Early June seems to be Cuckoo time at the preserve. I saw three Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the swampy forest areas and at a slightly more open area I ran into my FOY Black-billed Cuckoo. A Great Horned Owl was a surprise as I spotted it while sliding down a slope (stopped short of going in the creek). I located a new Red-headed Woodpecker nest on the east side of Big Walnut to go with the 5 confirmed on the west side of the creek in Area N. I added a couple of Northern Parula, a Yellow-throated Warbler and a Common Yellowthroat for color. Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve Galena, Delaware County SPECIES LIST Great Blue Heron Green Heron Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Wood Duck Mallard Osprey Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Spotted Sandpiper Mourning Dove Black-billed Cuckoo Yellow-billed Cuckoo Great Horned Owl Ruby-throated Hummingbird Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Yellow-throated Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird European Starling Cedar Waxwing Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Prothonotary Warbler Common Yellowthroat Scarlet Tanager Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole American Goldfinch ______________________________________________________________________ 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]