Top Photo: Eastern Bluebird, male.

Five chickadee nestlings were found dead in their nest. Five chickadees were alive and well in their nest. Five chickadees have fledged and left their nest. Two nest boxes are empty. One box had the beginning of a nest, but hasn’t been worked on for two weeks.

The Cow Pasture nest box has been, and remains, empty. There is no nest material in the box.

The Explore the Wild nest box contained 5 dead chickadee nestlings. Earlier in the week, on Tuesday (4/21) I noticed the inspection door on the nest box was open. As I approached the box I noticed that the nest box itself had been turned on its axis, the entrance hole was now facing SW as opposed to SE, its original orientation.

Looking into the box I could see all five nestlings were in the nest but otherwise unmarked and the nest itself unmolested. It seems as if someone had opened the box, left it open and the nestlings had died from exposure overnight (it had gone down into the thirties that night).

I placed a new berry basket in the box, reoriented it and am hoping for the best. But I doubt the chickadees will start again. We’ll see.

The Sailboat Pond nest box has four healthy chickadee nestlings inside its plush little cup.

No new nest material or construction has been applied to the existing nest material in the Into the Mist nest box. The chickadees that started the nest appear to have given up on this one.

No second brood for the bluebirds in the nest box on the east side of the parking deck. But, it’s still early.

The five chickadees in the Parking Deck West nest box have fledged.

Despite the five chickadees that perished in the Explore the Wild nest everything else seems to be going well. Five chickadees have fledged, four are still being fed by their parents. Three nest boxes are not active, but as mentioned, there’s still plenty of time left in the season.

Till next week, have a good one.

Ranger Greg