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
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
Spring, Almost
During the past week and a half, spring has been sneaking up on us. In my book, once we turn the page on February, it’s spring. There’s no going back. It’s here. And, over the past week and a half I’ve taken the photos you see here as evidence. The blooming red maple above and the sprouting elderberry below offer the best proof of spring’s imminent arrival. I’ve already mentioned, here in this blog, the arrival of our two Canada geese (theyRead more
Howl, Howl, Howl
Since I last reported on the howling of our wolves, how, up until recently, I’ve heard the male wolf howl perhaps three times over the past year, he has changed his routine. I now hear, and see, him howl on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times each day that I’m here on duty. I’m told, that the female had joined in on at least one occasion within the last few days. So, if you’re out and about in Explore theRead more
‘Tis the Season
This is our female red wolf (1794). It’s now breeding season. It seems as though she is spending more time out in the open than she had been in the most recent past. The male, as is usual, gets excited at her appearances, perhaps even more so now that the season for breeding is upon us. He follows her, walks past her as she’s rests, glancing over at her as he goes, and sniffs the air around her as ifRead more
A Question of Identity
As I walked along the path heading towards Catch the Wind, I noticed small pieces of what looked like bark or some other flaky plant material falling down around me, there must be a bird somewhere up there pecking away at something in the trees. There was. Some forty feet directly above me, a loose flock of small birds was in the outer branches of a large tree, busily consuming the seeds of the tree. Can you identify the tree? the bird?Read more