Top Photo: Eastern bluebird, male.

Both last week’s inspection and this week’s inspection are included here. There were no changes in the status of the nests within the boxes over the past several weeks. However, this week’s inspection revealed a take-over of one of the nests.

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The Cow Pasture nest box has been empty from the start of the season, no activity.

The Explore the Wild nest box at one time held a full chickadee nest. Unfortunately, the nest failed. The nest box has been empty since early May.

There has been no activity in the nest box at the Sailboat Pond since the first of May when four chickadee nestlings fledged.

The Into the Mist nest box contains the beginnings of a chickadee nest since the first days of April. There has been no progress in nest construction since.

The Parking Deck East nest box has already fledged five bluebirds. Now, a sprinkling of grass and pine needles indicates a bluebird showed interest in building a new nest in the box, but hasn’t added nest material since the beginning of May.

As I walked up to the nest box on the west side of the parking deck I could hear house wrens calling loudly from more than one direction. The wax myrtle near the box was abuzz with activity. The nest box itself had two wrens confronting one another at the entrance to the box.

There was some kind of dispute going on between the wrens. Whether the problem was with ownership of the nest or for mating rights, I may never know. I watched the birds scuffle for a few minutes, opened the box and took a photo, closed it and left. Twigs indicate that wrens had started construction of a nest.

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So, we currently have five empty nests and one, apparently contested, house wren nest .

See you next week.

Ranger Greg