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Date: | Mon, 9 Jul 2012 19:37:18 -0400 |
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After being mostly house bound during the past week the weather finally
broke and although fairly warm it was definitely better than 100 degrees with
an air quality alert. My cardiologist stopped having fits and I had to
stop worrying about what the recent storm did at the preserve and venture
out to face the damage I knew would be there. It turned out to be even worse
than I feared and I’ll be facing a major task to undo what Mother Nature
has wrought upon my nest box trail. The one saving grace is that most of the
nests had already fledged. It would have been worse if the storm had hit a
week earlier. I also located the recently fledged Bald Eagles confirming
they had made it through the storm. I’ll take that as the silver lining
knowing how much worse things might have been.
Area N took a terrible hit. Since 1993 it has endured multiple storms that
destroyed trees, but still the easily accessed area along the old road bed
south of Galena had managed to maintain a manageable canopy. Today it is
mostly devoid of its canopy which was a major draw there for the
Prothonotary Warblers. The back 40 of Area N also took a hit but still has a decent
canopy over the swamp forest. I on the other hand now will have a maze of
sunken downed trees to negotiate when I monitor the nest boxes. The trees
snapped like match sticks or went over exposing the roots. I will have to
scavenge through the area to inventory my nest boxes and recover those that went
down with their tree.
2012 has been an odd year for me and the Prothonotary Warblers at Hoover
Reservoir. Things started off on a positive note with good water levels and
many singing males in mid April. Then the rains stopped, the temperatures
went up and the water level went down. The water under the nest boxes was
replaced by mud, making them more susceptible to predation. The lower water
also caused problems for Shaune and me when we monitored areas by boat. The
low water level caused the boat’s propeller to strike bottom in areas
around the islands and in coves that are normally have adequately deep water.
With all this the Prothonotary Warbler numbers were still encouraging as the
nest season progressed. Then during the peak period for monitoring activity
in the nests the heat wave dropped in on Ohio. Since I qualify for two of
the “at risk” groups my activities were restricted. A year of ups and
downs. I still managed, with Shaune’s help, to locate 116 Prothonotary Warbler
territories at Hoover Reservoir. Lower numbers than usual, but the missed
time and other factors likely caused us to miss many birds.
The dropping water level at Hoover Reservoir has already exposed
significant mudflats. This is a mixed blessing. Some of these areas are drying up
rapidly and the habitat will not be suitable for the shorebirds as they
migrate south. Instead the shorebirds will find sterile baked mud rather than
moist mudflats with food to bulk up on. We need some rain or the shorebird
migration just may be a bust.
Some of the notable sightings today include:
Double-crested Cormorant – several dozen perched on exposed snags.
Osprey – I counted 6 soaring overhead. They looked like a kettle of TV’s
after a makeover.
Bald Eagle – Located two of the new fledglings from the east shore nest.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo – sighted one near Big Walnut Creek.
Red-headed Woodpecker – I checked on the nests in Area N and counted 6
adults
Warblers -- Northern Parula (1), Yellow Warbler (1), Yellow-throated
Warbler (1), Prothonotary Warbler (1 –low day for the year), and Louisiana
Waterthrush (3).
Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve
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