Yesterday was a perfect day to be out on the trail checking out the boxes for the first time this nesting season. Lots of wasps and Cuban tree frogs had taken up residence during the winter and needed to be expelled, which I did. Also, I found a lot of fire ant nests close to our boxes and eliminated those with ant bait. We also have our first resident of the new nesting season--a Mexican freetail bat-- that has temporarily taken up residence, but will probably not stay (picture below). We actually do have 3 partial and one complete bluebird nests.
The spreadsheet with all the data can be accessed at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HzJuTgf3HCErDZ0-R5qsAQWdVwVrqlCf. For those who are joining us for the first time, the legend for the spreadsheet is at the bottom of that page. The P under Nest, means partial nest, and the species of bird is checked under BB (bluebird); the O means Occupied (by a bat); the C means complete nest. We do have other native birds, like Carolina chickadee and tufted titmouse that inhabit the boxes, so those boxes will also be checked when they are in the boxes. The bat is checked under Other.
Since I don't have any bluebird pictures to show you today, I will share a couple of pictures of spectacular birds that we saw on our recent trip to Tanzania. First is the secretary bird. Most people say that the name comes from the head plume which resembles a secretary's quill, but the bird's name is actually a corruption of sagr-et-tair a word derived from Arabic meaning hunter-bird. The second bird is the grey-crowned crane, and the third is the beautiful and abundant bird, the lilac-breasted roller.