Bluebird Trail Report 8/3/2020

It was a hot, muggy day on the Flatwoods Park Bluebird Trail. We have a total of 154 fledglings (143 BB, 7 CC, 4 TM), with 6 chicks and 2 eggs left in the 3 remaining nests. By the way, the little Brazilian free-tailed bat is still roosting in box F49. See attached spreadsheet for details. Also attached are pictures of the chicks in boxes F18 & F41. Notice that the chick in F18 has just hatched and is still partly in his shell.

My day on the trail begins at the native garden, where I can always count on seeing one or two ruby-throated hummingbirds. In addition to the hummer, I saw a little blue, a tri-colored, and a great blue heron, wood ducks and black-bellied whistling ducks, ground and mourning doves, turkey vultures, an eastern towhee, a red-bellied woodpecker, and I flushed a covey of quails out of the tall grass. I was wondering what happened to the black-bellied whistling ducks' ducklings and Sherry Keller sent me a picture (above) where you can barely see the ducklings in the grass to the left of the parents.

The milkweeds are the host plants for the Monarch and Queen butterflies, and I finally saw the little Micheau's milkweed (Asclepias michauxii) that is always in the same spot (picture attached). Also attached are pictures of a Sandhill Prairie-clover (Dalea feayi) and the American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) which is everywhere and is beginning to get its beautiful magenta berries, which the birds love to eat.