Bluebird Update 4.4.17

We are now into our third week of nest box inspections and all of our six nest boxes are in use. Two of the boxes are occupied by eastern bluebirds, the remaining four by Carolina chickadees.

The Cow Pasture nest has 2 bluebird eggs where last week there were none. I expect they’ll be one or two more eggs when I peek into the nest box next week.

Cow Pasture nest with two bluebird eggs (4/4/17).

The chickadee nest in the nest box on the service road in Explore the Wild now contains 6 brown-speckled chickadee eggs. The nest was empty last week. The female has been busy. She was incubating when I looked in the box.

The adult was incubating these six eggs (4/4/17).

The new Bungee nest box also had an incubating female inside when I opened the nest box door. Last week this nest held 1, perhaps 2 eggs (difficult to see). It now has 5 eggs.

Here too, incubation was taking place (Bungee nest – 4/4/17).

There are now 4 chickadee eggs inside the nest box on the service road to Into the Mist. I’m not sure if this chickadee is done laying as there was no bird to be seen in the area, no chickadee scolding me as I peered into the nest.

Four eggs but no parent in sight at the Into the Mist nest box (4/4/17).

I thought for sure that bluebirds would take over the Woodlands Classroom nest box. It had started as a chickadee nest and I imagined that bluebirds would usurp the smaller parids. Not so. There are 4 chickadee eggs in the nest. I’m not sure if the female is incubating, the eggs were well concealed and there were no birds around the nest when I made the inspection of the nest box.

Difficult to see the four eggs in this nest at the Woodlands Classroom. (4/4/17).

Finally, the butterfly House nest box has 3 bluebird eggs. It appears this will be the limit for this brood. There were 3 eggs in the nest a week ago and a female flew out of the nest box when I came knocking this week. If she intended to lay more eggs she would have done so by now.

As last week, three eggs at the Butterfly House nest (4/4/17).

So, all of our six nest boxes are occupied. There’s a total of 24 eggs, 5 of which are bluebirds, and 19 of which are chickadees. The bluebird eggs are in the Cow pasture and Butterfly House nest boxes (2 and 3 respectively). The chickadee eggs are in the ETW, Bungee, Mist, and Woodlands nest boxes (6, 5, 4, and 4, respectively).

We’re off to a good start!

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