It was another beautiful day on the Flatwoods Park Bluebird Trail and we have a total of 22 partial or complete nests (BB 12, CC 5, TM 5). We have a total of 38 eggs (BB 11, CC 14, TM 13) and 21 chicks (CC 16, TM 5). See attached spreadsheet for details. It is so great to open a box and find newly hatched chicks. The first little CC chick in F32 was just hatching as we checked on that box. I've included pictures of several nests with eggs and chicks and notice that the week old Carolina chickadee chicks in box F4 are already getting their feathers and coloring.
Because we are in the dry season, the wading birds are hanging around any little puddle of water hunting for food. We saw several mixed flocks of wading birds that included wood storks, little blue and great blue herons, great egrets, roseate spoonbills, and white ibises. We also saw lots of bluebirds, Carolina chickadees, titmice, a downy woodpecker, mourning doves, red shouldered hawks, white-eyed vireos, cardinals, fish and American crows, and black and turkey vultures. We also saw one little alligator and several bull frogs at Clay Gully.
We spotted some very pretty wildflowers and with Carmel VanHoek's help we identified the Blueheart (Buchnera americana), Michaux's milkweed (Asclepias michauxii), which is a host plant to the Monarch and Queen butterflies, and Butterweed (Packera glabella).
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