We have an excellent report from our four county parks' bluebird trails:
Balm Boyette has 3 titmice nests with 17 chicks.
Lake Park has the first box with the second nesting, with a total of 11 nests (9 BB, 1 CC, 1 CW), with 10 eggs (7 BB, 3 CW), 24 chicks (14 BB, 6 CC, 4 CW), and 20 fledglings (14 BB, 6 CC).
Sargeant's Park has 5 BB chicks.
Flatwoods Park had a lot of activity today with 28 nests (27 BB, 1 CC), 42 eggs and 38 chicks (all BB), with 41 fledglings (6 BB, 23 CC, 12 TM). That is the most CC and TM fledglings we have had in over 11 years! See attached spreadsheet for details.
It was another wonderful wildlife day with lots of bluebirds and a prothonotary warbler, a ruby-throated hummingbird, a red-shouldered hawk, great blue and little blue herons, wood ducks, a common moorhen (gallinule), swallow-tailed kites, a turkey vulture, mourning doves, an eastern towhee, a red-bellied woodpecker, and we heard 2 bobwhite quail calling back and forth. We also saw a huge alligator at Clay Gulley.
Along the trail the wildflowers are finally beginning to show up in mass, like these Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta), and Blackroots (Pterocauolon pycnostachyum). On the lake the White Water-lilies (Nymphaea odorata) are blooming everywhere. in our native garden, our passionvine has been eaten up by the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. I've included a picture of the caterpillar and a Gulf fritillary butterfly emerging from it chrysalis stage.
I want to also give a shout-out to two of our Tampa Audubon Society and Suncoast Native Plant Society members, Joel and Barbara Jackson. They were awarded the Pasco Residential Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Award for conserving water in their landscaping. Congratulations for a job well done!
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