Hi, All:

This weekend was great in terms of bluebirds and swallows, however this is
the first time I have had Tree Swallows show up before VGs. It's really neat
to have the swallows chittering from the phone lines running over the creek;
a perfect hawking site. There were 4 TRES checking out the boxes. A pair
were very interested in one box that had had TRESs successfully nesting
there last year. Another (?) checked out one box that's about 12 feet off
the ground in which TRES had nested last year. A House Sparrow zipped over
and drove the TRES off. There are some times when I really wish I could
retire; it was too dark to pop the HOSP and now I have to wait until next
weekend to turn him into raptor food.

The Western Bluebirds were going from nestbox to nestbox. They started one
nest but that's all as of Sunday. A pair of Mountain Bluebirds are back in
their regular nestbox at the top of the driveway (about 300' higher than my
house). Last year, at the end of the season, there were 8 Mt. Bluebirds
flitting about that area so I'm hoping for another successful season with
them.

Regards, Joanne
Reardan (Spokane) WA
mailto: jhpowell at iea.com