Below are the Weekly Reports for the following BB Trails:
Balm-Boyette Preserve: One CC nest with 5 chicks.
Hunter's Green Park: Two BB nests, with 9 chicks
Lake Park: 15 nests (12 BB, 2 CC, 1 CW), 25 eggs (19 BB, 6 CW), 19 chicks (14 BB, 5 CC).
Lettuce Lake Park: One bluebird nest with 5 chicks, and one complete CC nest.
Sargeant's Park: 5 BB fledglings
Flatwoods Park: 37 nests (32 BB, 4 CC, 1 TM), 65 eggs (61 BB, 4 CC), 50 chicks (39 BB, 10 CC, 1 TM), and 7 fledglings (5 CC, 2 TM). See attached spreadsheet for details.
Flatwoods Park held a few surprises today and we really enjoyed all the wildlife we saw. Just about every year, we have a bluebird that lays white eggs, and this year it's the birds in box F37. 4-5% of bluebird eggs are white and it happens when 2 bluebirds with a recessive gene mate. The chicks that hatch from these white eggs are no different from any other bluebird.
Bluebirds were everywhere today and so were a lot of other birds. We were delighted to round a corner to find a mother Wild Turkey with her 12 little poults. They were so cute to watch!
The Great Crested Flycatchers have migrated back to Florida from their winter homes and are calling all over the park. They are mating and looking for nesting cavities. Another little bird we rarely see is the Common Yellowthroat, which hangs around wetlands.
We also saw Northern Bobwhite Quail, Common Ground and Mourning Doves, Common Gallinules, a Great Blue and Little Blue Heron, a White Ibis, Black and Turkey vultures, a Swallow-tailed Kite, a Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-bellied, Downy, and Pileated Woodpeckers, White-eyed Vireos, Blue Jays, a Fish Crow, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wrens, a Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Towhees, Northern Parulas, Palm Warblers, and Northern Cardinals. The butterflies are pretty active and we saw several Queen butterflies and one Spicebush Swallowtail feeding on a thistle. We also spotted a Florida Box Turtle.
We saw the flowers on another aquatic plant called Arrowhead, or Duck Potato (Sagittaria graminea), and the Pale Meadow Beauty (Rhexia mariana) is beginning to bloom all over the park.
Mary
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