Nest Box Update 6.20.17

There are two things to report this week. The 4 nestling house wrens that had been in the nest box at the old site of the Bungee Jump in Catch the Wind have fledged and, there is no activity in any of the other nest boxes. So, this may be the end of the nesting season for our little bluebird trail. I will report on any further activity next week, if it occurs. However, if there is no nest activity,Read more

Green Stripes

Alerted by the frass at my feet, I looked up into the maple tree branches over my head. It didn’t take me long to locate the source of the frass. Two green-striped mapleworms. Frass is caterpillar poop. If you enjoy finding caterpillars it’d be wise to keep an eye out for frass. If there’s frass on the ground, there’ll be a caterpillar, or a group of caterpillars, feeding above. Green-striped mapleworms are the caterpillars, or larvae, of rosy maple moths.Read more

A Sphinx Moth

I don’t know what made me look up, pure curiosity I suspect. As I craned my neck upward, a large green caterpillar caught my eye. It was about twelve feet up on the underside of a small twig of an elm tree. It was the end of the day, closing time, and I was walking the boardwalk in Explore the Wild for the final time. Although I couldn’t put a name on it, I immediately recognized the caterpillar. I’d seenRead more

Nest Box Update 6.13.17

We have one active nest, leaving five empty nest boxes. The six house wrens that had occupied the nest box at the Cow Pasture have fledged since last week’s inspection. Paper wasps were quick to move in. The nest box at the Outdoor Classroom service road in Explore the Wild is empty. Last week, there were 5 house wren nestlings in the nest box at the site of the old Bungee jump. This week I count 4 nestlings. They appearRead more

Bath Time

As I walked past the north side of the wetlands, I noticed an odd figure in the water some 25 yards distance. When you spend as much time in the wetlands as I do, you know when something’s out of place. Something was out of place. My first thought, there’s a loon in the Wetlands. Summer is the wrong time of year for a loon to be in North Carolina. Even if it were April, or perhaps October, when commonRead more
1 Comment

Green Heron Retrospection

On June 24, I noticed a pair of green herons carrying twigs to a small black willow tree forty feet or so from the Main Wetlands Overlook in Explore the Wild. Four days later there was an egg in the nest. A second egg could be seen in the nest two days after the first. By July 2, there were three eggs. Two eggs hatched on 19 July. A third hatchling’s fuzzy head appeared above the rim of the nest twoRead more

Bluebird Update 7.26.16

The 2016 bluebird nesting season here at the Museum of Life & Science is officially over. We had 25 birds fledge, 19 of which were eastern bluebirds with 6 Carolina chickadees. The most productive nest box was the Cow Pasture nest box with a total of 9 bluebirds fledged, 5 early in the season and 4 in a second brood. Five bluebirds each fledged from the Woodland and Butterfly House nest boxes. The Bungee nest box, which is just northRead more