Some days the sun shines down on you and everything goes right, or even better. I met with ODNR at the Oxbow Road section of the Hoover Nature Preserve this morning to do a brief interview about the Prothonotary Warbler nest box trail and for them to take pictures and video of some Prothonotary Warblers. Well, I have to believe some of them carry actors guild cards because this morning upon aiming cameras in their direction they opened their show and never let up. The pair in my nest box X-8 was the marquee act. The female is currently on the nest incubating eggs and generally does not make an appearance until late morning or early afternoon. Not to worry though as the male was going for the Oscar. He made numerous trips to the nest box bringing caterpillars for his mate, popping his head in and coming out sans the offering. She apparently has him around her wing feathers. He then would perch near the nest box and sing his “sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet” from a branch on the nearby black willow tree, or the nearby maple tree or from a low branch over the water as he looked at his own image. I’d call him self-centered except he is so brilliantly colored in his golden-yellow plumage that when the sunlight hit his breast it was like opening night on Broadway. For the two and one-half hours I was at Oxbow Road this morning he constantly sang. Later we walked the shore on Oxbow Island so I could open and check several nest boxes to demonstrate my procedure for monitoring my nest boxes. Usually I do this in the afternoon to lessen the chance of disturbing the female as she incubates her eggs. Today was a rare exception to the general rule. The first box I opened contained a Tree Swallow nestled down on her clutch. Tree Swallows are a competitor for nest boxes and natural cavities but are better behaved than House Wrens. She looked up at me but stayed on the nest and I quickly closed the box and moved on. The next box was at the edge of the neighboring Prothonotary Warbler’s territory. He sang from a branch overhead and then dropped to a buttonbush branch right in front of us and provided Act II of the Oxbow Road Review. He seeing the camera (they have to know) went into an I’m cute routine and provided poses for numerous pictures. A third Prothonotary Warbler on the far side of the island sang begging for his share of attention. ODNR hoped for some good pictures. I think the camera’s memory card got a workout. ODNR wanted to do a brief interview with me (didn’t anyone tell them I can talk endlessly?) so they set up their microphone and we began. Not easy when trying to tape a birder. Distractions are plentiful at Oxbow Road. For example, Green Herons doing a flyover, Baltimore Orioles, Scarlet Tanager, Great Crested Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow Warbler and a family of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, all while standing in front of the video camera in the parking lot. We did manage to do the tape. They indicated that the edited edition will be on the ODNR Social Media web site, their Face Book page beginning early next week. I sure the birds will look and sound better than me. I also manage to collect 50 gallons of trash this morning so I’ll call it a very productive and fun morning. 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]