Groove-billed Anis Fledge at Progreso Lakes, 6/19/22

A few weeks ago I noticed a Groove-billed Ani hanging around our backyard at Progreso Lakes.  We have a bottlebrush tree that makes a small shady spot where I like to set up my scope and peruse the lake shore.  I would set there in my lawn chair and watch the ani forage around the edges of our native brush patch.  A few days later I noticed two anis and they were hanging around the bottlebrush and the nearby dead ash.  Well my presence under the bottlebrush did not seem to bother them too much as they proceeded to build a well hidden nest in the upper portion of the small but thick foilaged tree.

After returning from an eleven day trip I saw they were carrying food items to the tree and assumed the anis were feeding young.  Well today three baby short tailed grooveless Groove-billed Anis fledged and I found them in our brush patch behind the bird bath.

 

Here's one of the parents with a small butterfly, a Celia's Roadside Skipper.

Twice I've seen one of the adults bathing in our bird bath in the afternoon when the water temperature has to be over 120.  It does this humorous dash across the hot water with its wings raised.  I've not been able to capture this with the camera but here's one after its bath.

A few more Groove-billed Ani photos.

I'm not sure how our yard's invertebrates and lizards will fair.  I'm sure these guys will eat a lot of them.