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
Posts tagged: #chickadee nest
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
Nest Box Update 4.25.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. After last week’s total of five occupied nest boxes we now have only two. The good news is, we saw 18 birds fledge this past week. ———————— The nest box at the Cow Pasture fledged four eastern bluebirds. What was most surely a newly arrived male house wren, built a prospective nest for itself and a mate while the nest box was still warm from the bluebirds. It remains to be seen whether this nestRead more
Nest Box Update 2.28.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs (from previous season). Not much has changed since last week’s nest box inspection. The same two nest boxes have been active, though one in a negative manner. There is definitely interest in both boxes. The Cow Pasture nest box holds a near complete bluebird nest. The bluebirds have been busy. Too early for eggs? The Explore the Wild and Into the Mist nest boxes are untouched. The nest box on the east side of theRead more
Nest Box Update 2.21.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs (from previous season). It’s early in the season. I usually don’t start next box checks until March. But the warm weather and singing birds had me anxious. And, the fact that there were a few pine needles in one of the nest boxes last week as we placed new berry baskets in them, had me curious too. Two of our nest boxes showed activity, not much, but some interest by the birds. The nest boxRead more
Nest Box Update 2.14.2023
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs (from previous year). Official Volunteer Sammie and I went around to all six of our bluebird nest boxes this morning placing new berry baskets inside each as we went. The birds have been singing a bit more than in previous weeks and we wanted to get ahead of them. Though not surprising, a pine needle was found in one of the nest boxes (bluebird?). The nest boxes have all been cleaned and exteriorly coated andRead more
Nest Box Update 7.19.22 (The Final Count)
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird nest with eggs. There has been no activity in any of our six nest boxes. Though there are partial bluebird nests in the nest boxes at Explore the Wild and the east side of the parking deck, they haven’t be tended to for over a month. Likewise, the house wren nest in the nest box on the west side of the parking deck hasn’t been touched since June. I tallied the total birds fledged for eachRead more
Nest Box Update 7.12.22
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. There has been no activity in either of the six nest boxes on campus. The Cow Pasture, Explore the Wild, Into the Mist, Parking Deck East and West, and Butterfly house nest boxes are all inactive. Though there is a complete house wren nest in the nest box on the west side of the parking deck, it too is inactive. We will give the nest boxes one more inspection before calling it quits for theRead more
Nest Box Update 7.5.22
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. Three of our six nest boxes have nest material in them. Only one of those has been worked in the past week. A house wren has completed the long dormant nest in the nest box on the west side of the parking deck. There’s an empty nest box at the Cow pasture, no activity. Explore the Wild has been quiet since March. The Into the Mist nest box is empty. The nest inside the boxRead more