April 16, 2016 Grand View

Well, it's been a long time since I posted to this blog.  Today marks the first official birding morning at Grand Vue.  It was a beautiful day at the busy park.  At about 9:30 I walked to several nest boxes and found most to have nest material inside.  One nestbox had 5 bluebird eggs, so I expect a very active week or two.  I walked with Sam down the eastern point.  I call it Pileated Point as I always have those woodpeckers in that area.  We continued all the way down to the "cliffs" which is a nice area with a pretty significant rock face.  I noted that someone made some steps from rocks and also, cut some steps with a shovel.  Once we arrived we found a nice Phoebe nest inside a big overhang.  I will try to post the picture, which looked great.  Moss, mud, sticks, and other vegetation sort of glued to the liken and moss covered rocks.  There was about a 2 inch space between nest and ceiling, which allowed me room for a very close up picture of 5 white eggs.  On the way out, I saw and heard a Louisiana Waterthrush in the adjacent ravine.  I will be back to check on this bird, hopefully nesting.  He did not really respond to my bird app vocals, must be a little early for that.  Between waterthrush, phoebe nest, and multiple nest boxes with bluebird eggs, I don't know which was best.

In addition, on recent walks, I have seen several Cooper's hawks, red-tailed Hawks, and a sharp shinned hawk.  I hope to find a nest location for all of these birds.  In March I also had a brown creeper, which was good to see.  Maybe I will get my first warbler in the up and coming week, or an oriole.

The day was a near perfect day, with sunshine, temperatures at around 80 degrees, and low humidity.  High adventure ropes course, swing, bungee drop, trampoline, and zip lining opened and made for a very active park.  And we ate at the trail head grill where I enjoyed mason Dixon barbecue with Ann, Sarabeth, Logan, and Emily.  It just doesn't get much better than that!