Bluebirds are nest building!

We are watching the Bluebirds gather nesting materials and they are using our nesting box. Very exciting! It's been a few years since we've had a pair choose to use one of our boxes.

It would also appear that a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches are nesting in a tree out front.

We kept a bird list yesterday and we had quite a few sightings (30 species in the yard and 43 total for the day):
Cowbird, White-throated Sparrow, Black-capped dChickadee, Eastern Bluebird, Red-winged Blackbird, Starling, Downy, Chipping Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (including 2 females- first of the year), Yellow-rumped Warbler, Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (first of the year- good thing I put out the sugar water feeders on Thursday!), Hairy WP, Tree Swallows (also nest building), Great Blue Heron, House Finch, Rock Dove, Purple Finch (Female- and of note is the fact we have been seeing Purple Finches on a daily basis the last while. We usually only see them for a day or two every year. Dave saw 1 male and 4 female PFs on Wednesday- the highest number we've ever had on site), Turkey Vulture, Northern Flicker, Barn Swallow.

In the afternoon, we all went to Bronte Creek Provincial Park for a hike. There we saw: Grackle, Canada Goose, Northern Mockingbird (a pair who were nesting. I checked the nest and there were at least 3 babies in there. One of the parents flew in and was giving me the business- calling at me and fanning the tail- see pics below), Mallards, Song Sparrow, Red-bellied Woodpecker (we haven't seen ours in quite awhile), Red-tailed Hawk, Amerian Kestrel, American Crow, Eastern Meadowlark (first of the year), House Sparrow and Eastern Phoebe.