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First Half of May and How to Tell Murray Bear from Little Bear

Top Photo: Canada geese defend goslings. Note aquatic turtles and spotted sandpiper on float behind geese. The second week of May was warm with little humidity. It was a pleasant time to be outside. Here’s a handful of sights that were witnessed during that period. The six goslings which have been following their parents around the wetlands for the past week (first seen on May 2) still number six. Butterflies are becoming easier to find as spring rolls along. ARead more

Nest Box Update 5.6.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have added seven new individuals to the local avifauna, four eastern bluebirds and three Carolina chickadees. All six of our nest boxes are without nestlings. Though, two have nest material from two different species and are slowly under construction. ——————————— At the Cow Pasture, a house wren has added to it’s meager nest in the past week. It doesn’t seem urgent. There were two twigs noted on last week’s inspection, a handful more thisRead more

Nest Box Update 4.30.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. There have been strange goings-on along our little bluebird trail here at the museum. Two nest boxes which had had healthy chickadee nestlings have been discovered to now have dead or missing nestlings or eggs from the nests. One nest box is still unchanged and has bluebird nest material within. One previously empty nest box has what appears to be a clue in the fatalities and disappearances of our chickadee nestlings, two twigs. —————————— TheRead more

Nest Box Update 4.22.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We still, as we did last week, have four active nests. However, we now have nestlings instead of eggs in all four of those nests. ——————————— As has been the case all season, the nest box at Cow Pasture hasn’t been touched. It’s empty. Last week there were five chickadee eggs in the nest box at Explore the Wild. Though there may be one egg still left under the nestlings pictured here, it will probablyRead more

Nest Box Update 4.15.25

To Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have, as we did last week, four nests with eggs. All the eggs were being incubated, that is, there was an adult bird in the nest sitting on the eggs when the inspection door was opened. Egg counts in the nests were the same as last week indicating the females are done laying. ——————————— The Cow pasture nest box is empty. The Explore the Wild nest has 5 chickadee eggs which were being incubatedRead more

Nest Box Update 4.8.24

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have four active nests, three belong to Carolina chickadees, and one is maintained by eastern bluebirds. One other nest box has had nesting material placed inside by a bluebird but has been inactive for the past month. One box is empty. —————————— There’s no activity at the Cow Pasture nest box. There’s been no sign of interest by either chickadees or bluebirds. An empty berry basket is what we’ve seen each week we checkedRead more

April Is Big

Top Photo: Just out of nest, this yellow bellied slider was headed for the water when it was noticed and picked up by visitors. April has arrived, a big month in the Carolina Piedmont, a transitional month. Turtles that have spent the winter in the ground where their mothers deposited them as eggs last summer are making their way to water to begin the next phase of their lives. If they make it past this first summer they stand aRead more

Nest Box Update 4.1.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We now have five nest boxes with nest material inside their cedar walls. One of those nests contains bluebird eggs. One has a new chickadee nest. One is still empty. ————————— The Cow Pasture nest box is empty with no activity noticed in the area on any of the past five weeks of nest box inspections. Chickadees have built a moss, fur, and feather nest in the box at Explore the Wild. ETW nest boxRead more