All eight of our chickadee nestlings have fledged and nine bluebirds are still in the nests and doing well. The two house wren nests have seen no progress in the past week. The house wren who had been building a nest in the nest box at the Cow Pasture has neither laid eggs or added twigs to the nest. I did not hear a wren singing while at the nest site. Male house wrens are known for building more thanRead more
Posts tagged: #nestling
Nest Box Update 4.30.19
We now have 4 bluebird eggs and 4 bluebird nestlings. There are 8 chickadee nestlings. Two nest boxes have the workings of house wren nests. The Cow Pasture nest at the meadow next to the Train Tunnel is filled with twigs, the handiwork of a house wren. There are still no eggs in the nest. House wrens are famous for building nests they don’t use, but I heard the male singing back in the brush as I inspected the nestRead more
Nest Box Update 4.23.19
There’ve been additional eggs, hatchlings and a change in occupancy since the last nest box inspection. Bluebirds, chickadees and house wrens are all involved. Yes, house wrens have returned from their winter quarters and have very loudly made their presence known. I heard the rolling warble of a house wren as I approached the nest box at the Cow Pasture and immediately started to wonder, ”Had the wrens taken over the chickadee nest inside the box, the chickadee nest whichRead more
Nest Box Update 4.16.19
As of the morning of Tuesday, April 16 there were 14 eggs and 3 nestlings in our 6 nest boxes. Nine of the eggs are chickadees and 5 belong to bluebirds. The 3 nestlings are all chickadees which also had 2 unhatched eggs in the same nest. I believe they’ll hatch later today, but let’s not count our chickadees before they hatch. The nest at the Cow Pasture near the Ellerbe Creek Train Tunnel contained two fresh chickadee eggs asRead more
Carolina Wren
Carolina wrens are famous, or should I say infamous, for not being picky about where they build their nests. The nest is a clumsy looking dome-shaped mass of leaves, grasses, roots, string, and whatever other debris happens to be lying about. It has a side entrance. They’re officially listed as cavity nesters, building their nests inside a woodpecker hole, rock crevice or ledge, hollow log, or bird box. It seems though, that any fairly enclosed structure will do, flower pots,Read more
Nest Box Update 4.9.19
This week’s trek around the campus to peek in on our 6 nest boxes along the museum’s bluebird trail involved eastern bluebirds, Carolina chickadees, and a bumblebee. All nest boxes contained nest material. Two had bluebird nests and four had chickadee made structures. The nest box at the Cow Pasture, up near the Ellerbe Creek Railroad Tunnel, has a completed chickadee nest. There were no eggs in the nest, and no adult that I could see or hear nearby, butRead more
Nest Box Update 4.2.19
All of our six nest boxes have shown activity over the past week. We have eggs in two nests. All but one nest has nest material within. One nest box has sign, if nothing else, that a bird showed interested in utilizing it for a nest. Last week the Cow Pasture nest box contained moss placed inside by chickadees. This week it’s been topped off with fur. Eggs are next. A partial chickadee nest sits inside the nest box inRead more
Nest Box Update 3.26.19
This is the second week of nest box inspections and we have four nests started or near completion. Three nests are of Carolina Chickadees and one of eastern blue birds. The nest box at the Cow Pasture near the train tunnel has a half-cup of moss. At this time last week the nest had only a few sprigs of moss. No takers for the nest boxes at Explore the Wild or Into the Mist service roads, both were empty whenRead more
Nest Box Update 7.31.18 (the final count)
There has been no activity in any of the nest boxes for the past two weeks. A house wren nest had been started in the nest box at the Cow Pasture, but apparently the birds have moved on. Likewise, the bluebirds that started construction of a nest in the box at Woodlands Classroom have not been seen or heard from in two weeks. I’m calling it. The season is officially over! Here’s the totals for birds fledged this and previousRead more
Nest Box Update 7.10.18
We have 3 nests that have now, or have recently, shown some sort of activity. One has seen additional construction, one has fledged its occupants, and another has what may be a new beginning. The building of the second-of-the-season house wren nest at the Cow Pasture has continued. I could hear the adult house wrens in the woods behind the nest box. They had started the nest in the nest box last week and it now looks to be nearlyRead more