Birds-in-Flight: Eastern Bluebird

The Eastern Bluebird is now observed many times throughout the day at the bird box. Sometime soon, I will attempt to get some photos of the nest building.
In the meantime, I thought I would continue our birds-in-flight series with the bluebird's flight from being perched on top of the box to perched on the box opening.
As you can see, the bluebird simply leans forwards and falls off the top of the box. The bluebird uses its half extended wings to slow its fall and to turn around to face the box opening. The bluebird then takes a wing stroke (not shown - sorry) to fly up to the opening.
This flight behavior of leaning forward and falling into flight and then flight up to a landing perch is consistent with the flight photos presented earlier for the woodpeckers, cardinals, and blue jay.

Bluebirds Building Nest in Birdhouse

Regular readers of the Colvin Run Habitat Blog know that Eastern Bluebirds are rare in the Habitat. While a bluebird house or box was erected last spring, a pair of chickadees immediately moved in, only to be evicted later in the season by a pair of house wrens. A bluebird was observed perched on top of the bluebird box last year, but did not build a nest.
At the beginning of March, we began observing a bluebird (never seen as a pair) in the Habitat about once a week. In the last few days, a bluebird has been observed not only perched on top of the box, but actually entering the box with nesting materials. I took these three photos after sneaking through the shrubs to get as close to the bluebird as possible.
I am guessing that this bluebird is the male, as the male supplies the nest materials while the female does the actual building of the nest.

Texas Longhorns in the Snow at Southlake Town Square

A previous post addressed Texas longhorns on the streets of the City of Southlake in Tarrant County, Texas. As we make this post, it is snowing in Southlake.
So pity the poor longhorns, today left to roam the city streets in the cold! It looks as if there are frozen stiff! Well, this is all in good fun.
My thanks to the staff of the Southlake Planning Department for their excellent work and photos.