We have six nest boxes on our bluebird trail. I inspect the nest boxes once per week following the same sequence each week; Cow Pasture, Explore the Wild, Into the Mist, Parking Deck East, Parking Deck West, and Butterfly House. This is a compilation of the nest box inspections for the month of July.

July 6

Though there are two nest boxes containing nest material, one with house wren twigs (Cow Pasture) the other with bluebird grass and pine needles (Butterfly House), there is no activity in any of nests at this time. All nest boxes are quiet.

July 13

None of the six nest boxes have seen activity in the past week. All nest boxes are unoccupied.

July 20

All nest boxes inactive.

July 27

All nest boxes inactive.

I’m officially calling the season since there are no occupied nest boxes. Typically at this time of year there’s one final blue bird nest with nestlings about to fledge. However, all nests are empty.

The total birds fledged this year are as follows:

Eastern Bluebird – 5

Carolina Chickadee – 0

House Wren – 5

Total for 2021 – 10

This year has seen the lowest number of birds fledged. And, it’s the first year I can remember where there were no attempts to use two of the nest boxes. Three were abandoned in mid build and never completed.

For comparison purposes here’s the list from 2019 (I didn’t monitor the nest boxes in 2020).

Eastern Bluebird – 17

Carolina Chickadee – 8

House Wren – 9

Total for 2019 – 34

There have been bad years before but the the total number of birds fledged has never dropped below 23 birds for the season. It has averaged 27.86 per year.

I blame most of the reduced number in birds on habitat loss and change. The only successful nests  were the two located on either side of the parking deck which offers an semi-open grass area with nearby woodlot.

The rest of the nest box sites are now exhibits or overgrown woods.