First Towhee Nest!

The most exciting news of the day is that we found the first towhee nest of the season! It belongs to GOAN (male) and GPAY (female) and is in X16, fairly close to the road. We had seen GPAY hanging out in that particular area while calling, but then she seemed to disappear. We were standing on the path next to the road, keeping track of her movements by watching the bushes rustling, but then we saw a Song Sparrow take off from the spot where we thought GPAY was! We joked that the towhees hire Song Sparrows to fool us. Adam had a hunch about where he had last seen GPAY, so he decided to carefully walk around that area while Laura and I watched diligently from the path. Adam walked around and eventually GPAY took off right near Adam’s feet! We knew there must be a nest right there. Adam carefully looked under a few bushes, and found the nest! It had two eggs. We wondered if GPAY was still laying or if this was her completed clutch. We quickly left the area so GPAY could return to the nest. Today was the first day we had confirmed GOAN’s identity this season, so it’s nice to know he’s back and has a nest!

In Q17 we saw ??AN (male) singing across the road in a tall tree. He then flew into PAPO’s area (Q18) and we lost him before we could get a look at his left leg. In T4 YGAN was singing and calling. In W6 GA?O (male) was singing near the road. Adam and I wondered if this was GAGO, one of our fledglings from last year. Either he is missing one band, or it is riding high on his right leg and we were unable to see it. In F3 (south) AROO (male) was calling and foraging. In K5 AY - - and RRBA (female) were foraging. RRBA was picking flowers from a tree and nibbling their bases. She picked flower after flower, chewed the bases, then dropped the flowers. We wondered if she was sucking the nectar out of the flowers.