This morning we launched the H.M.S. Hoover with ourskipper Shaune Skinner at the helm. We were joined by Jeanne Gokcen, a newbirder on her first hardcore outing. It was one of those days we all alwayswant, nice temperature, mild wind, smooth water, sunshine and nicelycooperative birds. I’m fairly sure that by day’s end Jeanne was hooked onbirding. The action began at the Oxbow Road Boat Launch. The firstthing I heard when I opened the car door was a male Prothonotary Warblergreeting me. Things just got better. I had told Jeanne of the Bald Eagle’s nestso our first stop was to visit the nest area and observe the Bald Eagle Nest.As always Bald Eagles are impressive as is the tree that manages to supportthat huge nest. From there the intention was to concentrate on locatingProthonotary Warbler territories but as is often the case when Shaune and Ilaunch onto Hoover Reservoir the distractions are irresistible. Today weconcentrated most of our efforts on Big Walnut Creek and Little Walnut Creek.We were rewarded with a marvelous list of species with many in very goodnumbers. Some of the highlights of today’s cruise were a HornedGrebe diving at the upper reaches of Little Walnut Creek (Its brethren longgone north this bird seemed out of place but quite content); a female HoodedMerganser cruising the waters not more than a quarter mile further south onLittle Walnut Creek; 10 Red-headed Woodpeckers, several at new locations forthem bring the number of nest sites to 13 at the preserve; 8 Osprey, the 4 onthe 2 nest platforms at Area M plus 4 near Oxbow Road and White-tail DeerIsland, could this mean more nesting pairs than realized?; 3 Yellow-billedCuckoos; Great Crested Flycatchers all around the reservoir’s shores; and 51Prothonotary Warblers, mainly males as the females generally are either layingeggs or incubating eggs during the morning hours. The males’ color were ondisplay for us all day. Many males came close, landing out in the open glowinggolden-yellow in the sunlight as they sang for us. I never get tired ofwatching them put on a show. With the addition of the new Prothonotary Warbler territoriesidentified today we have now passed 100 territories in 2013 with severalimportant areas yet to have in depth coverage. The last stop was to land back at Oxbow Road where themale Prothonotary Warbler at nest box X-8 put on a show. He sang and flittedalong a low branch over the water. He appeared to be enjoying his own image inthe water and presented great opportunities for taking his picture. With theday we had and this as the ending Jeanne was treated to a nice beginning to herbirding experiences. A species list for the day follows. CharlieBombaci HooverNature Preserve SPECIESLIST HornedGrebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Wood Duck Mallard HoodedMerganser Osprey Bald Eagle Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Spotted Sandpiper Ring-billed Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren House Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Eastern Bluebird American Robin Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Yellow Warbler Prothonotary Warbler Common Yellowthroat Eastern Towhee Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow ______________________________________________________________________ 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]