We have been very lucky to have a clear view of a pair of western bluebirds. There has been a nest box on the back lot for many years. Last fall, it was time to replace the old, battered box with a new one, and the birds settled in early this spring.

They were getting things ready by the beginning of March.

Despite the cold, they were ready to get started. Note the fluffed feathers in the photo above.

The process was largely mysterious, with the parents coming and going during April and May, but no sightings of the nestlings.

The babies finally started sticking their heads out in May. Mom and dad brought food on a regular basis/

By the last part of may, the kids were ready to see the world. Within a day of showing their heads, everyone was gone.

I cleaned out the old nest a few days after the fledglings left, and was surprised to see a pair of bluebirds bringing new materials less than a week later. It is impossible to say whether these are the same parents, but it seems likely. They can often raise more than one clutch per year, so maybe we’ll see more fledglings in a few months.

The parents have been out and about quite a bit, and seem unbothered by the presence of observers and paparazzi.

Family Album from Past Years

This seems like a good time to reminisce about past broods. It’s hard to know how long these particular parents have been rearing young in Terry’s box, but screech owls have been nesting there for many years. Terry has many more excellent photos; here is a small sampling.

The drama in the nest box continues. Based on past broods, he expects them to fledge on or about May 22. As always, stay tuned for more.

Below is one of his latest creations, which he has fine-tuned for scale and pacing. Enjoy!

I am certain that the beetles would be mesmerized by it if they had better eyesight.

At the moment, the owlets look like fuzzy blobs, but in the video you can see three sets of wiggly heads, bodies, and wings.

Let’s hope for the other two to hatch successfully in the next few days.

In the past week, temperatures have shifted upward dramatically. It’s above freezing every night, and plants and animals have responded appropriately. There is so much to see.

We made a quick trip down to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge near San Antonio, NM. The sandhill cranes are all gone, but there are plenty of ducks and songbirds. We stayed at a house near San Antonio, and were treated to a small group of wild turkeys. The females spent a lot of time foraging near the house, and a male would occasionally stop in and try to woo them.

There were also a few mammals, such as javelinas and coyotes.

We also came across an Eleodes, probably E. gracilis

Back at the lab, spring is in full swing. Winter birds, like juncos and robins, have moved on, and summer residents, including lesser goldfinches and Say’s phoebes have settled in.

Some of the year-round residents, such as western bluebirds (and, of course, screech owls) are taking their jobs as parents seriously.

As added enticement, we replaced the old bluebird box with a shiny new one.

Stink beetles are very much making their presence known. One can now find multiple species of Eleodes on a casual stroll around the neighborhood.

Now that the weather has warmed up, this month’s pitfall trap survey was a bit more interesting.

There’s plenty of traffic through the field with the traps, including this big, fuzzy coyote that strolled through the week before the traps were set.

We caught a few Eleodes sponsa in the traps, along with wolf spiders, ants, and weevils.

So the natural world has gone from quiet to extremely busy this month. Don’t forget to check out the updates on the owl cam page if you have a few minutes.

The first species to receive this honor is the prominent, large, and widespread stink beetle, Eleodes obscura. It has been the subject of field surveys, respirometry experiments, and longevity studies here at the lab, and may be the most studied species of Eleodes.

Expect more pages to become active with time. Hopefully, this will become a resource that many people in the community can make use of.

Five eggs will be a pretty good brood if they all hatch and survive. For the next few weeks, she will be tending them, with the first egg expected to hatch about April 22.

For several years, our neighbor Terry has been recording and posting footage from his camera inside a next box occupied by a pair of western screech owls. He has always had a strong following on Facebook, but for those of us who do not use the platform, he has offered to make the information and videos available here on the Lab web site.

Once again, they have prepped the nest box and have started to lay eggs. The first video clips have been uploaded to Terry’s Owl Cam page, along with his comments and a spreadsheet of data regarding previous broods.

New videos and commentary will be uploaded regularly, so stay tuned for plenty of drama and excitement. There are two eggs now, with more to come, and then it will be about another month before they hatch. Once the eggs hatch, there will be a festival of cuteness as the little fuzzballs eat and grow for roughly another month before they fledge.

The pitfall traps were set this month with the expectation that it would be too cold for small arthropods to be active. The data would serve as a baseline for later surveys, when bugs would be more active. As if to emphasize this point, we got a few inches of snow the night before the traps were to be collected.

Even though each trap was marked with a flag and had a big rock on top, some were hard to find under the snow, and I had to be careful to avoid spilling too much snow into the cups.

When I got them back to the lab, I was in for a surprise.

The cups were not overflowing with life, but there was plenty to see. The most common insects were ants. About half (maybe 5) were the large, leggy species shown above. The rest were the much smaller species shown below. Sorry there’s no scale, but they were moving too quickly for that. I preserved some, so may post better photos later.

There were also quite a few springtails (Collembolans), probably of several species.

They are extremely tiny, and I know little about them, so all I can say at this point is that there were springtails active in the neighborhood.

There were also at least three spiders, of at least two species. According to iNaturalist, the spider shown above is a ground crab spider in the genus Xysticus.

Most exciting were two species of beetles.

One weevil fell into a trap. It is about 6 mm from nose to tail. Looks somewhat like Ophryastes, but I am not certain.

There were also two larvae that looked like they were in the family Melyridae, or soft-winged flower beetles. They looked identical to each other, so maybe they are relatively common around here. The larval biology of most beetles, including the Melyridae, is not well documented, so it may be impossible to determine the species of these guys.

It was a pleasant surprise to find some little arthropods in the traps this month, especially a few species of beetles.

There were, however, no Tenebrionids as yet. In that way, this month’s collection does actually serve as a control. I expect that we may find some of them when the traps are reset in early April.

Inspired by comments from my friend and colleague Dr. Drew Talley, and conversations with a local Master Gardener, we set up a small array of pitfall traps to collect and record beetles over the course of the year.

It is a 3 X 3 grid, so nine traps total, spaced 3 meters apart. We set out flags to mark the locations of the traps in a section of the back acre of the lab where foot traffic was minimal.

The traps are plastic party cups, buried to the rim. The soil is quite loose, so placing the traps was easy.

Once the traps were in place, we put plywood covers over them to keep debris out and shield any animals that fall in.

The covers are 6″ X 6″ pieces of plywood, each with three legs made from 3/4″ dowels. The 3″ legs allow them to be partially buried for stability. Once screwed together they were given a few coats of latex paint to protect them from the elements.

We’ll set traps for the first week of each month, for five nights at a time.

I have not seen beetles in the neighborhood before April, so it is unlikely any will fall into the traps this month. Knowing when beetles are not active provides an important baseline for when they first appear.