Wow, the dawn song near the beehives is very different this morning from last week. This time last week we had the usual titmice, chickadees, nuthatches with robins, phoebes, house finches and goldfinches singing. This morning we have that plus solitary sandpiper, sandhill cranes, ruby-crowned kinglets, bluebirds and a peewee. The bluebirds (above) are really going to town. Non Birding Bill and I cleaned out the boxes last week and this morning a pair was flying back and forth between the two houses. The male seems to like them, he just needs to get a female to agree with him.

The male sits on top of the box and alternates flipping wing in the air to get her attention. She flies over, sits on top, perches on the box, looks inside--she needs to determine is this is the type of dark box that she can incubate in comfortably for the next few weeks.

I hope they choose one. We get birds nesting in these boxes every year--but rarely bluebirds. Usually chickadees or house wrens, it will be nice to get the birds the boxes were actually intended.