I'm embarrassed! I've always prided myself in being aware of the first hardy wildflowers that bloom each spring. Even when occupied by a steady stream of distractions (work) back when I was regularly employed, I always found time to look for those first blooms even if was only one or two flowers in a sheltered spot as the snow melted elsewhere. Somehow, the flowers snuck up on me this year. I would have missed the hepatica and bloodroot entirely if a friend hadn't mentioned that his woods were full of bloodroot. The stretch of unusually warm weather accompanied by recent rains is bringing early and mid-season wildflowers into bloom all at once. 

It's not as if I've been hiding indoors, but my activities hadn't taken me into woodlands where the wildflowers boom. I enjoyed checking many wood duck boxes for the conservation board in the past couple of weeks. Wildlife made good use of the boxes during the past year, but it wasn't always wood ducks. Several boxes had old tree swallow nests in them. One of those, amazingly, was built over the back of a hen hooded merganser that must have died in the duck box early last spring. She hadn't laid any eggs before she died, but "hoodies" have occasionally nested this far south. 

Another had a house wren nest in it, and a couple of others showed evidence of winter roosting by screech owls. One of the few remaining older style wood boxes had a sleeping raccoon inside that took a lot of poking and prodding to remove. A couple of squirrels were evicted, too.

Each box gets a new batch of wood chip bedding after it's cleaned out. Hen wood ducks cover their newly laid eggs with bedding chips until the full clutch if ready for incubation. She may lay an egg every day or so for two weeks before she begins to incubate. Incubated nests always show lots of down feathers that she picks from her own breast once she starts to incubate. Unhatched eggs are counted along with egg membranes that usually indicate hatched eggs. Even successful nests often have several eggs that don't hatch. Sadly, a couple of the nest boxes showed what I can only call a partial hatch. The eggs had obviously begun to hatch, but the fully formed baby ducks died without getting completely out of their eggs. Another box had 15 fully hatched babies inside, but ice had apparently pushed the post the nest box was mounted on backward far enough that they couldn't climb out of the box. Wood duck boxes all have "ladders" built inside to allow the newly hatched young to climb out as soon as their down is dry, usually within 24 hours of hatching. They're pretty good little climbers, but they can't climb ladders that are tipped past vertical. A few boxes had to be repaired and/or relocated, too.

Now it's time to shift gears and get the bluebird houses ready. The same friend who tipped me off to the wild flowers advised that he already has bluebirds looking at almost every house on his sizeable "bluebird trail". Story County has bluebird trails with multiple boxes in several of their park areas including the McFarland Park – Peterson Park area, Hickory Grove Park, the Praeri Rail Trail, and Christiansen Forest Preserve. Bluebird boxes need at least weekly checking after the initial spring cleanout to make sure that house sparrows and wrens don't take over the nest sites before bluebirds get to them. Tree swallows are usually welcomed if they take over the box first, and I'll even leave wren nests alone after mid summer when bluebirds are pretty much done with their nesting.

There are still at least a few active purple martin colonies in Story County. It's way too early for them to be returning, but the unseasonably warm weather we're experiencing may lure them back well before their usual arrival time. Early arriving martin "scouts" will need boxes to roost in even if the main flocks haven't arrived yet.

It's time to make sure all nest boxes are cleaned out and ready for another season!