After doing a little spring cleaning in my basement, I came across some cedar lumber to make a few birdhouses.  I decided to let each of the kids pick out the box of their choice and help build them.  We ended up with a house wren box, a robin box and another bluebird box.  The house wren box was fun to make because we had a piece of cedar that had a knot hole perfect for the wren box so it made it look more natural than the drilled out holes.

While enjoying the record high temps today and bountiful sunshine, I heard a bluebird singing in the backyard.  Running to the back to see it, I was suprised to see 2 male birds apparently laying claim to each of my two houses in the back.  After the flew off onto my roof, I quickly opened up the boxes and removed last years nests.  More nest boxes may now be necessary as I had only one male show up in years past.

Back in December, I sowed a flat with 3 different gentian species in it.  I decided that the storage time was up, and time to start germination.  The weather was a little warmer today with even higher temps tomarrow.  I will use the warm weather to get things started and then move them back into my basement as gentians need darkness to germinate.  I’m crossing my fingers on these guys.

Phillips Park Zoo is a free admission zoo located in Aurora off of Montgomery road, just follow the signs.  There are lots of outdoor exibits including the mountain lion, river otter, bald eagles, elk and wolves.  There is also a reptile house and a museum dedicated to the mastadon which was found in the park in the 1930’s. 

Inside the mastadon museum there are several fossilized bones which were found within the park.  On display are two skulls, tusks, and several other bones.  There are photos of the excavation and a brief history of the fossils.

The reptile house has lots of surprising animals that I didn’t expect.  First are two spectacled caiman which I have never seen in a zoo before.  Second are the two american alligators shown above.  There are also several large boa constrictors, pythons and other smaller snakes.  Also on display are tortoises and turtles, including a large snapping turtle.  

One of the best parts of our visit to the zoo was seeing the wolves on display.  Both the wolves and the mountail lions have display windows for up close views of these beautiful animals which was great for the kids.  Phillips Park Zoo is a great place to go with the family.  It’s not very large so you can decide to go there just for an afternoon walk when the weather is nice.  Defineatly somewhere to go again.