One of the two currently active nests here at the Museum has hatched its eggs (most of its eggs) and a bluebird female is incubating her clutch in another nest. Activity is slow to non-existent in the other four nest boxes.
The bluebird nest at the Cow Pasture has seen some progress, but I’m afraid it ends there. It’s perhaps the heat, or maybe it’s the slow down of hormonal juices, but the bluebird that had been building this nest seems not at all in a hurry.
I’m writing off the nest at the Bungee Jump pasture, it has remained the same for the past month or so.
Likewise, the nest box behind the Sailboat Pond has seen no avian activity for more than a month. Even the wasp that had been building a nest in this box has given up.
The Amphimeadow nest box is quite a different story. It now has three nestlings, fresh nestlings. When we first approached the nest box on Tuesday morning (6/23) the female was peeking out of the entrance hole.
Upon opening the box, we discovered three hatchlings and one unhatched egg. The remaining egg may yet hatch, the nestlings look as though they had just hatched themselves.
The male flew in to have a look as we were preparing to leave the meadow. He perched on the nest box for a brief time and then went into the box for a more thorough inspection. Apparently satisfied we had not harmed his young, or the unhatched egg, he then flew off.
The nest box next to the Picnic Dome on the south side of Murray Avenue is inactive. I don’t expect any further activity in this box. It has already had two failures, a bluebird nest was destroyed by a house wren and the subsequent house wren’s nest was apparently eaten (the eggs) by a rat snake.
The Butterfly House nest box, which held four eggs last week, still contains four eggs. The female flew out of the box as we approached and I expect the eggs will hatch by next week.
So, we now have two active nests, the Amphimeadow nest and the Butterfly House nest. The former having three nestlings and one unhatched egg, the latter containing four eggs, all bluebirds.
Although there has been nest material added to one nest (Cow Pasture), I don’t expect any further activity in any of the other four nest boxes. I could be wrong. As usual, we’ll have to wait and see what the birds decide to do.
See you next week.