Top Photo: Rat snake crosses path in front of me. A walk around our outdoor loop through the Dinosaur Trail, Explore the Wild, and Catch the Wind can be relaxing and rewarding. You never know what you’re going to run into. Anything from snakes to folded-wing skippers is possible, and frankly, expected. Here’s some of the things I bumped into this past week. The photos above and below are of a common local resident, rat snake. The individual above isRead more
Posts filed in: Spring
Nest Box Update 5.16.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have three nest boxes which have at least some activity, one has four eggs, one has a complete new bluebird nest, and one has only just a suggestion of a bird’s interest in making a nest inside, one twig was placed in the middle of the berry basket inside the box. ———————— The Cow Pasture nest is doing well. The house wren that was inside the box incubating the four eggs as we approachedRead more
And Then There Were None
Top Photo: Lone barred owlet peeks out from damaged nest. Barred owls are cavity nesters. They nest in holes in trees, nest boxes built for them, or a broken off trunk open at the top, exposed to the weather and other dangers, like predation. On April 29, I posted on this blog about a barred owl’s nest here on campus. At the time there were two owlets in the nest. On May 6, one of the owls fell out ofRead more
Nest Box Update 5.9.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. One of our nest boxes has been emptied and there are now four house wren eggs in another. The remaining four boxes are empty. ———————— The wren nest which had remained untouched for two weeks now has four new wren eggs in the twig based structure. The chickadees in the nest box in Explore the Wild have apparently fledged. There were five nestlings huddled together in the nest last week, today it’s empty. The IntoRead more
Mimics and Other Amazing Springtime Sights
Top Photo: Brown thrasher belts out his best imitation of other local birds and sounds. Like mockingbirds, thrashers (above) mimic other birds and sounds that occur in their immediate area. While mockingbirds often repeat the same phrase over and over again, thrashers tend to repeat each mimicked phrase or sound twice, then move on to the next one. Physical mimicry is fairly common in invertebrates. Whether to avoid being eaten by predators or as a predator seeking to hunt otherRead more
Nest Box Update 5.2.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have two active nests, Cow Pasture and Explore the Wild, house wrens and chickadees respectively. ———————— The Cow Pasture nest is still intact but doesn’t appear to have been attended to in the past week. We’ll have to wait to see what develops as the female house wrens come to town. There are five growing chickadee nestlings in the nest box in Explore the Wild. You have to look closely but you can seeRead more
Barred Owl Experience
Top Photo: Circle marks spot of barred owl nest. Barred owls are year-round residents here at the museum. They’re not always seen, but they’re always here. Some years the owls are spotted on a regular basis, but most years their presence is only realized though an occasional, resonate “Who cooks for you-all” or even just a single “you-all” coming from somewhere back in the woods near the stream that runs through our campus and eventually into Ellerbe Creek. This year,Read more
The Phoebe Fledge
Top Photo: Juvenile eastern phoebe waiting for food from one of its parents. On Thursday morning of this past week, I noticed a pathetic, wheezy, weeping sound coming from the palms along the sides of the path on the Dinosaur Trail, the unmistakable whining of a young bird on, or just off, the nest. It didn’t take long to locate the bird. It was an eastern phoebe, just fledged. There were at least two more of the little flycatchers upRead more
Nest Box Update 4.25.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. After last week’s total of five occupied nest boxes we now have only two. The good news is, we saw 18 birds fledge this past week. ———————— The nest box at the Cow Pasture fledged four eastern bluebirds. What was most surely a newly arrived male house wren, built a prospective nest for itself and a mate while the nest box was still warm from the bluebirds. It remains to be seen whether this nestRead more