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Date: | Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:28:55 -0400 |
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After spending the majority of my time during the past week monitoring new blocks for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II and assisting Jackie Bain with programs with the kids at Gallant Woods Preserve in Delaware County, I was back on home ground at the Hoover Nature Preserve to monitor the progress of the Prothonotary Warblers. It was a comfortable morning to stroll along Old Sunbury Road and the area around the Eastshore Yacht Club. Of course that’s if you stay on the level defined path that is the old roadbed. To monitor the nest boxes I follow the shore and wade to the nest boxes, duck tree limbs and fight with multiform rose. I did use the road on the return walk to the car.
The Prothonotary Warblers are at the stage where they are fledging the nest everywhere. It’s a little like watching fluffy popcorn hiding in the button bushes. I located 6 adults and numerous fledglings at the cove by the Eastshore Yacht Club and along Old Sunbury Road I located 21 adults and oodles (new technical birding term) of fledglings. Some of the nest boxes are, or have been used by Tree Swallows and House Wrens along this area. Since there are houses closer to the water here than many areas with nest boxes, the wrens occupy a higher percentage of my boxes along this stretch.
I always seem to find the unexpected while monitoring the nest boxes. Today this included a nesting pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers that I hadn't notice before; the discovery of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo on i
ts nest (the nest is as well constructed as my projects in wood shop during Junior High - use at your own risk); and what may be an indication that there was a second Osprey nest at Hoover Reservoir this year. I watched an adult (or adults?) fly into a large cottonwood tree with fish in talon several times. I couldn’t get a clean line on the location without taking a swim so I deferred any conclusion until the trees loose their leafs. Will Santa have a nest of large sticks waiting for me? Most years one could walk along the shore already and get close, but with the recent rains Hoover Reservoir’s water level is at near peak depth. This last fact probably means we won’t have good shorebird habitat at Hoover until September unless it gets hot and dry the rest of the summer.
Observations today included:
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose and large goslings
Wood Duck hens with ducklings in tow
Mallard
Osprey
Bald Eagle (1 adult)
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swifts
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Wood
Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler (27 adults and “oodles” of fledglings)
Common Yellowthroat
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve
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