We’ve been so busy here at the Museum, visitation wise, I’ve not been able to get out this posting until now. I was able to inspect all of the nest boxes as usual on Tuesday morning and here’s the results. Here we go. As of Tuesday (3/29) all nest boxes were active in one way or another. But, there have only been four eggs deposited in the nest, three chickadee eggs and one bluebird egg, the Bungee nest and the WoodlandRead more
Month: March 2016
Bluebird Update 3.22.16
I typically make a check of all six bluebird nest boxes on our bluebird trail on Tuesday mornings. I took time off from the Museum last week and didn’t inspect the bluebird nest boxes as I would have had I been here. In my absence, the local birds had been busy. Each of the nest boxes has been worked on to some extent. Although the boxes were installed with bluebirds in mind we often have other species using them. MostRead more
Spring!
I personally go with March first as the official arrival of spring, the so-called meteorological spring. Even so, some things are happening a bit ahead of time due to the unusually high temperatures we’ve been experiencing. Just this past Monday I saw an eastern tiger swallowtail flying about. Around these parts, tiger swallowtails are butterflies of April, not March. The seventy and eighty degree weather accelerated the emergence of that butterfly, for sure. I thought I’d post a handful ofRead more
Nuthatch Excavation
The small bird in the above photo, with the gray back and wings, white underparts and brown head and nape, is a brown-headed nuthatch. The nuthatch is pausing between bouts of vigorous pounding away (below) at the trunk of a black willow in our Wetlands. Another nuthatch was working these willows at the same time last year. Last year’s pounding resulted in a cavity where a pair nested some twenty feet from the trees this bird now works. It couldRead more
Bluebirds!
It’s that time of year again. Bluebirds have been poking around the nest boxes on our modest bluebird trail here at the Museum, so I decided to get things ready for those azure-backed thrushes. Last week, using 8″ galvanized stove pipe (thanks Kevin), I manufactured and installed new predator guards on the three nest box poles which lacked them. I relocated one nest box due to future construction at the site. And, after receiving a supply of 1/2 pint berryRead more