A Second Look--June 10, 2015

More summer like weather this week. Hot humid days with evening thunderstorms. Fortunately the mornings have still been cool. This weather has brought out the summer bloomers--the flowers that bloom most of the summer, and the spring perennials are pretty much done except for a lingering flower here or there.

As predicted, the baby bluebirds had already fledged by the next time I looked in the nest. So, I decided it was time to clean out the nest boxes to prepare for more broods this summer. But an interesting thing happened on my way to clean out one of the boxes. I found more baby birds. We have three boxes. One had the bluebirds, one had a full wren's nest with no eggs and one had half a wren's nest with no eggs (or so I thought). Wrens are known for having decoy nests or extra nests to fill up nesting sites to keep other birds away so I didn't think that much about the extra wren nests without eggs. As it turns out, the nest that I thought was only half done had babies in it. It was built up high enough that I couldn't quite see into the bottom of it. I had it half way pulled out before I spotted the birds. I quickly put it back in place, so I didn't get a chance to see how many birds were in it. After I left the area, I saw the mother come and check on her brood. I think they're all okay.

Here are a few things this week I saw

 during a Second Look.

Day lily (Stella Dora)

Hottuynia

Spirea

Lamium (purple dead nettle)

Astilbe

Blanket flower (gaillardia)

The deer have been eating the coneflowers before they have a chance to bloom.

Coreopsis

Marigold

The baby wrens are in this box. I had a hard time closing it back up because the twigs that the nest was built from fell into the sides.