Today I had the pleasure of sharing the golden jewels of the Hoover Nature Preserve with Leslie Sours. This was her first visit to the preserve and after this morning I doubt it will be her last. Things started slowly and I feared my guys and gals were not going to cooperate, but then the world around us turned golden-yellow and the rest of the morning we were always within sight and sound of Prothonotary Warblers. My conservative tally was 41 males. The females were busy with maternal duties in the nest boxes and cavities. Sometimes I think some of the males are hams at heart as they seem to go out of their way to show off when I have guests at the preserve. We observed them singing high and low; foraging in the trees and bushes; gleaning insects from near the water’s surface; and chasing intruders from their territory, including one bold male that chased off a Red-bellied Woodpecker. We walked to the end of the boardwalk to watch the Osprey. The female was there and the hatchlings were low and hidden. The male flew in with his catch and up popped three small heads. The triplets vied for their share and ate with vigor and a general lack of table manners. The male then flew off and as we walked back along the boardwalk on our way to the parking lot the male swooped down in the inlet next to the boardwalk and came up with a fish. Later from the advantage of Area N we watched one of the hatchlings rise and flap his wings. Someday in the future it will lift off from the nest platform and begin its exploration of the world around it. I then began Leslie's tour of the back-forty. We donned boots and began down the old roadbed stopping at the vernal pool to watch the resident PROW as he patrolled his territory. As we reached the edge of the reservoir we were soon surrounded by singing PROWs as we proceeded to where the path was underwater. We then headed off-trail following my nest box trail into the swamp forest with PROWs singing everywhere. We were disrupted by Yellow-billed Cuckoos that mostly teased us as they moved around in the dense foliage. We then heard crows sounding off as they were mobbing something ahead of us. It turned out to be a Barred Owl that alit from its perch and made a run for it with the crows close behind. Leslie then spotted some activity above us that turned out to be a pair of amorous Great Crested Flycatchers. They provided us with great views as they came even closer to us. They are beautiful birds that all too often are hidden in the upper branches. As we got deeper into the back section of Area N the PROWs got thicker and continued to put on a delightful show for us. Leslie spotted activity in a tree ahead of us and discovered a Tufted Titmouse bringing food to its nest cavity. Near them we found Red-bellied Woodpecker feeding their fledglings. There was considerable other activity around us and we finished with a nice group of birds for the morning and I have listed them below. Charlie Bombaci Hoover Nature Preserve SPECIES LIST Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Wood Duck Mallard Osprey Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Barred Owl Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Acadian Flycatcher Willow Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird European Starling Prothonotary Warbler Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Baltimore Oriole American Goldfinch ______________________________________________________________________ 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]