The chicks seem to be thriving, they’re growing quickly. With the nice weather, we’ve started sitting on the deck, putting us ~20 feet from the box. Mom sat and thought a couple minutes the first time she returned to the nest, then just decided to ignore us. Dad goes through Mission Impossible set of stunts to throw us off when he’s headed to feed the chicks. He’ll sit on the perch in the yard I provided, scoot to the azaleas under the box, then head for the roof over the deck before outwitting us and sneaking into the box.

Hummingbirds have been back for about a week now. There’s been an ongoing dispute over who gets to claim the feeder on the deck. I haven’t seen the tree swallows for several days.

Sorry to miss yesterday’s update, just too many things to do with too little time. I’ll have some more of the usual suspects soon along with a toad mating gathering.

We’re watching eastern bluebird chicks in a nesting box that has a camera installed to let us watch without disturbing the birds.