On July 26^th, I had another opportunity of visiting Brenda and Rick Bostick at their home, a chance to catch up on what has been happening since mid Spring. The star attraction was a family of 3 Red-headed Woodpecker's whose nest was dislodged when their tree was cut down. They couldn't be re-nested and Brenda was called. At the time I visited they were nearly ready to be released. The only thing left was to make sure that they were eating independently.

There were more guests than just the Redheads. If my count is correct they had 34 birds in their care. Most of their birds are common perching birds: Cardinals, House Sparrow, Mourning Doves, but they did have a few larger and more exotic species: one Green Heron and one Pheasant!

As she was during our May visit, Brenda was very busy. She had a volunteer today, Felicia, and that did lighten the load. Rick Bostick helps out with the birds during the weekends.The birds I had seen during that earlier visit were mostly released, but some had died (the Mockingbird in the May photos). At this time of the year the nestlings and hatchlings come from second broods. Many of us probably don't realize that birds often have two broods a year. Barn Swallows, for example, can still be watching eggs into late August ¹. Other species have similar breeding patterns. Still August is the beginning of the end of breeding season and the numbers coming in are smaller than in the 3 previous month.

- Jerry Mc Kenna

¹ Birds of North America doi:bna.646 Brown, Charles R. and Mary Bomberger Brown. doi:10.2173/bna.452

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