This week’s inspection came out all positive. There are hatchlings, new eggs, and two nests have seen a rejuvenation.

There were hungry mouths to greet me as I peered into the nest box at the Cow Pasture. Although the nest previously had 6 eggs, I could only make out 5 nestlings. There may have been one chickadee nestling under the mass of blind, naked parids that lay before me but I couldn’t see it. They’ll still be in the nest by next week’s inspection so perhaps I’ll be able to get a better count then. I don’t like to disturb them any longer than I have to so I didn’t try to move any of the birds about.

Surprisingly, there were 6 fresh eggs in the nest in Explore the Wild. Last week I reported there were only 2 eggs left from a chickadee nest of 6, and one of those had been broken. I suspected house wrens as being responsible for the destruction of the eggs, though I hadn’t seen or heard any in the area. Apparently, the chickadees have started this nest anew with 6 eggs.

In the “finally” category, the bluebird nest in the box at Into the Mist has 3 bluebird eggs. This nest had been vacant the longest of any of the other nest boxes on the 6 nest box trail. It seems bluebirds have finally committed themselves.

From last week’s 4 chickadee eggs to this week’s 4 chickadee nestlings, the nest at the Parking Deck nest box is moving along nicely.

The Woodlands Classroom nest, a bluebird nest, has 5 eggs. It had 5 eggs last week. I saw no adult birds in the area, but am hopeful.

A strange thing happened at the Butterfly House nest. For the past couple of weeks there had been 4 eggs in the nest. Last week there was an adult incubating the eggs. This week, I found a new bluebird nest built atop the old. I could see the eggs beneath the material of the new nest. Were the original eggs not fertile and the bluebirds decided to build over them? I’m curious as to what will happen next.

So, we now have 6 active nests, 3 chickadee and 3 bluebird nests. We have 9 chickadee nestlings, 5 in the Cow pasture and 4 in the Parking Deck nest. There are 6 chickadee eggs in the Explore the Wild nest. There are currently 8 bluebird eggs, 3 in the Into the Mist nest and 5 in the Woodlands nest. The Butterfly House nest has no eggs, but a new bluebird nest has been built atop 4 eggs that were laid previously.

I can’t wait till next week’s inspection!