Spring in the air

January has been cold, colder than I remembered, and there has been little cycling opportunity. Instead, we have been hiking regularly and Emma has loved it.

Today is February, and it is a lovely day. Everybody is thinking Spring. The curve-bill thrasher was singing his heart out this morning and I heard Roadie doing his mournful  "coo, coo, coo", which is supposed to be irresistible to a mate.

Thanks to the cactus wren all our bird houses are full of desert vegetation, he likes to fill them all up and does so in short order. We have not seen the cactus wren for weeks though and I was wondering whether these full nesting boxes would deter other birds from building their nest. I decided to clean out a couple of the bird houses, but leave one so that a roosting bird would still find a cozy place to spend the night as we still have freezing temperatures.

We also have a nest box made to northern flicker specifications. One year a flicker was here hammering the flashing on the pump house so we thought we would accommodate him and provide a nesting box there. I think the location is too public as we drive by the pump house on our way to anywhere, but we saw a kestrel around that area for awhile. Then the cactus wren moved in.

This is what I found when I cleaned it out. The saw dust in the bottom is a flicker requirement, then there is the what I assume is the kestrel contribution, and the cactus wren stuff on top. I was surprised at the kestrel layer: how did he get those large sticks and rocks inside? Birds are amazing. On to a new year of nesting!