Greetings... The Bell's vireo that Scott Reeves found on Monday, was along
the fencline behind the power plant on the west side of Gilmore Ponds. It
was singing in and around the tallest tree (a locust of some sort) along the
back fence of the plant, just south of what looks like a nuclear missile
silo.

A few other highlights: 10 blue-winged teal, including one nest with three
eggs. Nice to have them nesting. It's been a while for Gilmore. I suspect at
least one other nesting pair in West Pond. 4 coots, 12+ mallards, 2 spotted
sandpipers. It's a good sign to have wetland birds hanging around this time
of year in numbers divisible by two. I was disappointed to not find the
shovelers or cattle egret that were reported the past week-plus.

Few noticeable migrants: a Swainson's thrush, a blackpoll warbler, and a
Blackburnian warbler.

Mosquitoes were moderate to bad. On the Mosquito Misery Index, with 0 being
"Gilligan's Island" level, 75 being "The Lord of the Flies," and 100 being
"The Heart of Darkness" ("The horror! The horror!"), today's reading rose to
as high as 45 or 50. It was bad enough that after a few seconds of looking
for the singing Blackburnian warbler, I gave up looking because of all the
mosquitoes around my head. So perhaps the index needs some
recalculating--there are a lot of proprietary calculations and esoteric
formulae that have to be adjusted. It will take some time. But when
mosquitoes interfere with one's desire to see a Blackburnian warbler, that's
a lot of mosquitoes!

We had a bit of rain here in West Chester today. I wonder if it will be
enough to send Brood X into the light?

Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH