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 chickadeeRead more
Posts tagged: #Carolina Chickadee
Nest Box Update 4.18.26
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird, male. We now have fourteen nestlings in three separate nests. All birds are chickadees. One nest that contains nest material (chickadee) hasn’t been added to or rearranged since last week. One nest box is empty. The Cow Pasture nest box is empty with no sign of activity. The Explore the Wild eggs have hatched, though I can only count five chickadees in the nest. There were six eggs in the nest last week. Did one notRead more
Nest Box Update 4.11.26
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird, male. Five birds have fledged (bluebirds), five eggs have hatched (chickadees), and ten eggs are being incubated (chickadees). One nest box has a partial nest (chickadees) and one is empty. The nest box at the Cow Pasture remains empty. The adult chickadee sat tight as the nest box in Explore the Wild was opened for inspection, it flew out at the last second to reveal six eggs. The sailboat Pond nest box, as it did lastRead more
Nest Box Update 4.4.26
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird, male. Only one of our six nest boxes is empty. One of them has the beginnings of a chickadee nest inside and there are 15 chickadee eggs and 5 bluebird nestlings in the remaining boxes. A word of caution, house wrens have NOT arrived on the scene. The Cow Pasture nest box is empty. There’s been no sign of activity. The nest box at Explore the Wild has 6 fresh chickadee eggs in among the moss,Read more
Nest Box Update 3.28.26
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird (male). We now have 6 eggs (chickadees) and 5 nestlings (bluebirds) to observe. Carolina chickadees occupy three nest boxes and eastern bluebirds one. Two nest boxes remain untouched (Cow Pasture and Into the Mist). The Cow Pasture nest box has seen no activity. It’s still early in the season so I suspect we may still see some interest in this location near the Train Tunnel. Explore the Wild nest box was empty last week. It nowRead more
Nest Box Update 3.21.26
Top Photo: Male eastern bluebird. Our 6 box Bluebird Trail has seen positive activity this past week. We have seven eggs, five bluebird and two chickadee eggs. Additions have been made to another of our chickadee nests, but still no eggs in that one. The Cow Pasture nest box remains empty with no birds showing interest at that site. Explore the Wild is spotless with not a beakful of moss, or grass stems in the case of bluebirds. The sailboatRead more
Nest Box Update 3.14.26
Top Photo: Male eastern bluebird surveys his domain. Things are looking up, three of our nest boxes have activity, one which had a bluebird nest last week now has four bluebird eggs. Two nest boxes contain nest material placed inside their walls by Carolina chickadees. The Cow Pasture nest box, located near the Train Tunnel is empty, no takers yet. The Explore the Wild nest box is also empty. This box is usually occupied by chickadees. We’ll have to waitRead more
Bluebird Nest Box Season
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird, (male). This is the first nest box inspection of the season on our 6 nest box Bluebird Trail. All the boxes had been previously cleaned and readied for occupation. Only one of the boxes showed activity. The Cow Pasture nest box is empty, no activity. The Explore the Wild nest box too, is empty. The nest box on the service road to Into the Mist has an empty berry basket inside. Not surprisingly, the nest boxRead more
Aphids on Oaks
Top Photo: Myzocallis aphids on scarlet oak leaf. There are more than 1300 species of aphid in North America. It seems like every plant species or variety has its own specialized aphid, sucking the juices from the plant and often causing serious damage in the process. Other times the damage is minimal and the plant is relatively unharmed. Such is the case with the aphids shown here (Myzocallis). I found and photographed several small groups of this Myzocallis aphid onRead more