After my close encounter with the avian bluebird kind (see #4), I was headed to my next station. Suddenly, without any warning, I heard a banging sound. The sound a hydraulic lift door makes on a truck when lowered to the ground quickly and not too delicately! Turning, I see a whirling dervish of dust, funnel shaped, moving fast and headed straight towards me. Jumping to one side and moving into the forest, the swirling dust devil cleared a path and hit the nest box I was about to check. Moving it considerably from side to side, the box withstood the shaking and the dust dancer continued on into the forest losing its oomph when it hit a few large oak trees. The box happened to be the empty bluebird nest (see # 9), or else I figure the nestlings may have experienced an ear and eyeful of dust. Never a dull moment on this nest box trail!
The curve-billed thrasher and ladder-backed woodpecker pairs have 2 fledglings, each seen learning foraging and flying techniques from their parents. The thrashers have a particular preoccupation with our Arizona gray squirrel pair. If they see the squirrels anywhere close to their prospective nest locations or seed and mealworm feeder sites ,it provokes a response of chasing and pecking at their hind quarters to shoo them away. Quite a comical sight to behold! The squirrels are never too upset or injured by all these antics, nor do they retaliate. In time they merely move on to a less hectic haven.
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