Today Shaune Skinner and I set out on the H.M.S. Hoover to survey the Prothonotary Warbler population along the southeast shore of Hoover Reservoir. We began with the two coves at Twin Bridges then slowly sailed a course hugging the shore from Twin Bridges to the coves at Duncan Glen. At almost every location with ample flora of cottonwoods, box elder, black willow there was a singing male Prothonotary Warbler. In the day’s sunlight they were a gorgeous golden-yellow. Often the male would come closer to investigate us. Since Shaune forgot her camera today the males put on a musical revue for us. Isn’t that the way it works? Murphy was an optimist. We logged 29 Prothonotary Warblers in the area we covered today. They are having an excellent year at Hoover Reservoir and the final tally should be very encouraging. The fledglings should begin making their appearance during the coming week. Many other species are introducing their young to the world and we observed fledglings chasing the adults begging for food. It’s amazing how much noise a little Tufted Titmouse can make when it begs. One of my favorites was the Cliff Swallows. In many parts of Ohio they are rare or absent, but at Hoover Reservoir they are common. Cliff Swallows can be found under every bridge and at the dam. There are over 400 active nests at Hoover Reservoir and if you go under one of the bridges by boat you can easily observed the birds at their nests. Today we observed one of their behaviors that I enjoy, groups of Cliff Swallows gathered around puddles of mud to get mud for their nests. They look like butterflies the way they hold their wings up as they collect the mud. This view shows off the details of their markings and then you can appreciate that these are beautiful little birds. Usually swallow are seen from beneath and their beauty is missed by the observer. Some of the other observations of the morning included Green Heron, Osprey, Belted Kingfisher, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Kingbird, Warbling Vireo, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow Warbler and Yellow-throated Warbler. 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]