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
Posts tagged: #chickadee nest
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
Nest Box Update 6.13.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. There is only one active nest on our six nest box bluebird trail. ————————— The Cow Pasture, Explore the Wild, Into the Mist and Parking Deck East nest boxes are currently unoccupied. When opening the inspection door o the Parking Deck West nest box there were five bluebird nestlings huddled into the bottom of the pine straw nest, eyes yet to open. I took my obligatory picture and let them be. The final next boxRead more
Nest Box Update 5.30.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We now have three nests which show at least some activity. One has four nestlings, one with bluebirds sitting on five eggs, and minimal nesting material in another. ———————— The Cow Pasture nest box has four nestling house wrens. They look healthy and may fledge by next inspection. Both Explore the Wild and Into the Mist nest boxes are empty. The nest box on the east side of the parking deck still has three smallRead more
More May Sightings
Top Photo: Common snapping turtle contemplates its next move. The snapping turtle pictured here was heading towards our wetlands. It may be a new arrival, having come up the creek which lies a dozen or so meters behind it. The creek is where our wetland drains. There’s a substantial drop where a large pipe delivers our wetland’s overflow into the creek. The drop keeps creatures like this snapping turtle from continuing their journeys via a direct route to our wetlandsRead more
Nest Box Update 5.23.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have three active nests, at least in part. There are four nestlings in one nest, four eggs in another, and nesting material added to another nest. ————————— The Cow Pasture nest appears to have four nestlings. They’re house wrens. Last week I could clearly see four house wren eggs and it appears there are four nestlings piled atop one another now. It’s difficult to see them all, but I’ll check the nest again laterRead more
Nest Box Update 5.16.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have three nest boxes which have at least some activity, one has four eggs, one has a complete new bluebird nest, and one has only just a suggestion of a bird’s interest in making a nest inside, one twig was placed in the middle of the berry basket inside the box. ———————— The Cow Pasture nest is doing well. The house wren that was inside the box incubating the four eggs as we approachedRead more
And Then There Were None
Top Photo: Lone barred owlet peeks out from damaged nest. Barred owls are cavity nesters. They nest in holes in trees, nest boxes built for them, or a broken off trunk open at the top, exposed to the weather and other dangers, like predation. On April 29, I posted on this blog about a barred owl’s nest here on campus. At the time there were two owlets in the nest. On May 6, one of the owls fell out ofRead more
Nest Box Update 5.9.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. One of our nest boxes has been emptied and there are now four house wren eggs in another. The remaining four boxes are empty. ———————— The wren nest which had remained untouched for two weeks now has four new wren eggs in the twig based structure. The chickadees in the nest box in Explore the Wild have apparently fledged. There were five nestlings huddled together in the nest last week, today it’s empty. The IntoRead more