We have great reports from the Bluebird Trails at the 4 County Parks listed below:
Balm Boyette has one second nesting with 4 TM eggs, and 17 TM fledglings
Lake Park has 6 second nestings for a total of 9 BB nests, with 21 BB eggs, 12 BB chicks, and a total of 46 fledglings (28 BB, 12 CC, 6CW)
Sargeant's Park has a second nesting with 2 BB eggs, and 5 BB fledglings
Flatwoods Park has 6 second nestings for a total of 23 BB nests, with 28 BB eggs, 24 BB chicks, and a total of 81 fledglings (46 BB, 23 CC, 12 TM). See attached spreadsheet for details.
We had a surprise today in box F31 at Flatwoods Park, which had 4 blue bluebird eggs last week. Another bluebird took over the box, built a nest on top of the 4 blue eggs and laid one white egg. About 4-5% of bluebirds lay white eggs if both parents have that recessive gene. Their chicks are identical to chicks from blue eggs.
We began monitoring earlier today when it was nice and cool and saw lots of birds and other wildlife. We saw 7 black-bellied whistling-ducks, 12 wood ducks, little blue and great blue herons, an American egret, a Northern parula, a black-crowned night-heron, a common moorhen (gallinule), a flock of white ibises, a swallow-tailed kite, ground doves, black and turkey vultures, and a white-eyed vireo.
At one of the small lakes we saw 2 raccoons on the shoreline and an alligator in the water. As we were finishing the trail, we stopped to watch a water moccasin cross the road. This day's journey ended with a photo of a beautiful Spider Lily (Hymenocallis crassifolia) found in our Florida wetlands.
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