The brown thrashers nested in the yard and their babies are now using the garden as a little nursery.





A female hummingbird visited for a few days last week.





Bumblebee





Visited the Jupiter Ridge scrub and coastal preserve to see if the scrub jays were still around. They were!





Osprey nest



Curious black racer



Red-bellied woodpecker keeping an eye on him



Funny fiddler crabs





Been hearing baby blue jays around, hope they visit the garden soon!

The screech owlets fledged last week. It seems so fast!























Here's a rundown of this season's activity:

Jan 25- first visit to box by female confirmed

Mar 9- female started spending days in box

Mar 12- first egg laid

Mar 14- second egg laid

Apr 9- first egg hatched

Apr 10- second egg hatched

Apr 30- first day female spent away from box

May 10- first baby fledged

May 11- second baby fledged

Down the last female painted bunting. The rest of the buntings left a week or so ago, but one female is still hanging out.



Here's one of the males from last week



The baby screech owls have been a joy to watch. The nest box is getting crowded!











Peekaboo!



Better not get too close!

The babies are growing up fast.



Mom is usually the one in the box with the babies. She spends the days in there and at night she tears up the larger prey items for them.



This is the only photo I have of the whole family. Mom and Dad are almost never at the nest at the same time. He is the smaller one on the lower left. If it were in color you could see that he is a grey morph, while she is a red/brown morph.



Brown anole for scale



Mummy cuddles







Hello!



Spent a few days in Colorado for work. A nice break from the increasing heat here in FL.











More of the baby owls on twitter at @janineimages

The owl chicks hatched a week ago today. They are growing fast!









The Indigo buntings showed up last weekend also. They didn't stay long, but I got to enjoy them for a few days.





Red and Blue





Had some fun with this one in Photoshop- the levitating Painted Bunting was by himself, so I plopped him next to the angry Indigo.



Gossiping at the bird bath



Straggler hummingbird



Last views of the Ovenbird, another bird that headed north this week.



The birds are a distraction from weekend work. Never fear, "Chore Hawk" is on the case! Once he shows up, birds scatter and housework can get done!





I'll end with a shot of the majestic Jupiter Lighthouse.

Migration is picking up. The swarms of goldfinches have moved north. I have a few stragglers left, but they are not as colorful as these males from last week. Note the Northern Parula checking out the action.





Most of the hummingbirds have moved on as well. I have at least one still visiting the coral bean.



The screech owl (aka "The Princess") is incubating her eggs



A hooded warbler arrived yesterday.





This morning, there was a varied palette of birds in the garden: painted bunting, indigo bunting, and cardinals.



I've got more of The Princess and the buntings on my twitter too, check them out @janineimages

I got carried away with the saturate tool on this one, but really liked the effect that the flowers made in the foreground.



My fragrant dendrobium orchid is also in bloom!



Biggest sphinx moth I've ever seen!





A quiet evening at Riverbend

Took advantage of this week's cool front to visit Jupiter Ridge, a nice chunk of coastal scrub habitat.

Florida Scrub Jay, our only endemic bird





Another creatively named creature, the Scrub Lizard





Gopher tortoise



Zebra swallowtail caterpillar





Lots of bird action in the garden. Painted buntings still here.



Sunbathing brown thrashers



Northern flicker



Giant swallowtail



And in screech owl news, there are two eggs!



I've set up a twitter for her, and just to post nice wildlife things in general. Check it out @janineimages

It's been an active week in the garden.

The goldfinches are starting to turn bright yellow. It is lovely to hear them all chattering and fussing amongst themselves.







Painted buntings also getting more colorful and more vociferous.



Cardinals pairing up



The screech owl is spending more time in the box





Riverbend park has also been more birdy lately

Barred owl



Sandhill Cranes



Sneaky raccoon



Another "bird" sighting from last week!



Some Riverbend sunsets

It has been hot this week, and the bird baths are quite popular.







Yellow throated warbler



Yellow rumped warbler with goldfinches



Video of robins, goldfinches, buntings, and others enjoying the bird baths:



Other unusual visitors:

Northern Flicker



Northern Parula



We did have a cool front a couple of weeks ago, which brought in the manatees. Got these shots at the Manatee Lagoon in Riviera Beach.











Lastly, the screech owl has continued to check out the nest box every few nights. Here she is testing out the bedding. I hope it is to her liking!



She has been back several times since, so we are hoping that she is planning to nest here.

The goldfinches are following a similar pattern as last year. We started with three at the beginning of the month. 3 became 6, which became 18, and now I estimate that we have 60+ visiting daily. They are funny to watch as they swarm the feeders.





Another unusual visitor, a ruby-crowned kinglet.



The female black-throated blue warbler is still skulking around.



Brown Thrasher in the bath



Red-shouldered hawks



My "citrus grove" is coming along nicely. I am even getting some fruit!



In other news, we replaced the old wooden owl box that was destroyed by the pileated woodpeckers. The new box is plastic and is wired with an infrared camera. We have seen a screech owl investigating the box this week. Hopefully they decide to nest again this year!