Top Photo: Eastern bluebirds eggs. All six of our nest boxes are occupied. Two contain chickadee nests and four are bluebird made. There are 18 eggs (5 chickadee, 13 bluebird) and 6 nestlings (all bluebird). —- The female bluebird who sits in the nest box in the Cow Pasture is incubating 5 eggs. There are 5 Carolina chickadee eggs in the nest box at Explore the Wild. An incubating bird flushed as we approached the nest box. One of theRead more
Posts tagged: #bluebird
Spring Appearances
Top Photo: Fatsia japonica or Japanese Fatsia, fruit. Not native but planted on the Dinosaur Trail to enhance the sense of a long ago tropical realm, fatsia is in fruit, but going fast. The plant’s name is derived from the fact that fatsia, in an old Japanese language, means eight, presumably referring to the number of lobes on the plant’s large palmate leaves. This, even though the leaves never have an even number of lobes, or points. I’ve consistently countedRead more
Nest Box Update 4.2.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. All but one of our six nest boxes are occupied. There are four bluebird nests and one chickadee nest. There are five nestlings and at least thirteen eggs waiting to hatch, all bluebirds. — Last week the Cow Pasture nest held 2 bluebird eggs. The female has deposited another 3 in the cupped grass and pine needle nest. After remaining empty for the past six weeks, chickadees have finally taken over the nest box onRead more
Nest Box Update 3.27.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebirds eggs. We have four active nests. Three nests hold a total of nine eggs and one contains five nestlings. All are bluebirds. —— The Cow Pasture nest box held an empty bluebird nest last week. Today it contains two bluebird eggs. The Explore the Wild nest box is empty, only a 1/2 pint berry basket inside. With a complete bluebird nest in the box last week, we now have four bluebird eggs to monitor at theRead more
Nest Box Update 3.19.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs from previous season. We now have four active nests, all bluebirds. Two of our six nest boxes remain empty, one typically used by chickadees is vacant and the other perhaps due to disturbances by humans. —— The nest box at the Cow Pasture has a new and complete bluebird nest inside. No eggs yet. Over the years, the Explore the Wild nest box which has been a reliable location for Carolina chickadees to build nests.Read more
Nest Box Update 3.12.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs from previous season. On the fourth week of nest box inspections there is one active nest and five empty nest boxes. The Cow Pasture, Explore the Wild, and Into the Mist nest boxes are empty. Last week the nest box on the east side of the parking deck held one bluebird egg. Today there were five eggs in the nest. There was no sign of an adult in the area so it’s not clear whetherRead more
Nest Box Update 3.5.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs from previous season. We have one active nest with a new addition from the previous week. There has been no activity in any of the other 5 nest boxes. The Cow Pasture, Explore the Wild, and Into the Mist nest boxes are all empty, no nest material and no sign of interested birds in the area as each nest box was opened and inspected this morning. The Parking Deck East nest box had one additionRead more
Nest Box Update 2.27.24
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs (from previous season). There is only one active nest, a near complete eastern bluebird nest. No activity has been observed in any of the other five nest boxes. The Cow pasture nest box is empty. There’s no nest material in the nest boxes at Explore the Wild or Into the Mist. Parking Deck East nest box has our first bluebird nest of the season. If the weather cooperates these birds will have the jump onRead more
Final Nest Box Update 8.1.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. The bluebird nesting season here at the museum is officially over. There’s no activity in any of our six nest boxes. The table below is a total of all the birds fledged since 2012, when I first began monitoring the nest boxes. There were a total of 36 birds fledged this season. The best years for bluebirds were during the 2012, 2013, and 2014 seasons. Chickadees had their best years in 2013, 2018, and 2023,Read more