Time at the Lake

Last night we decided to make a short visit to our urban state park, to get some use out of the annual pass we bought. We got there in time for a lecture about reptiles and we all got to pet a snake.

Then we decided on a picnic at lunch time today. It was kind of hot, but we found a reasonably shady picnic table. Rachel's friend spied an Eastern Bluebird and later I noticed its mate. The pair of them kept coming back to the same branch with their mouths full of fat green caterpillars and bugs. Then I noticed how they seemed to disappear, so that made me suspicious there was a nest somewhere. Sure enough, there was a tree hollow with the opening facing away from our vantage point.

So we just had to check it out. By climbing up on the ice chest, and using the little flashlight on Rachel's key chain,we were able to see 3-4 tiny birds inside.

Even Gary tried to see with his monocular. We didn't spend too much time by the nest since we didn't want mama and daddy bluebirds to come and peck our eyes out.