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 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

Redbud, Swallows, and Elm

Top Photo: Redbud lights up the spring forest. It’s when the redbud trees bloom that you realize just how many of the small trees there actually are in and along the forest edge. It blooms well before many other flowering trees, even before it sends out its own leaves. The tree’s leguminous magenta flowers brighten up the spring, and are so much more pleasing than the white, and stinky, Bradford pear blossoms. The pears are planted everywhere you look alongRead 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

Finally!

Top Photo: A pair of hooded mergansers in the museum’s wetlands. Finally, a pair of hooded mergansers dropped into the wetlands. This is the latest arrival date in my time here at the museum (I spotted the pair on Tuesday, December 2, but they may have been here Sunday [11/30] or Monday [12/1] and not reported. I was present neither day). I traditionally get a peek at them by mid-November. I’m anxious to see how long they stick around. RangerRead more

Final Nest Box Update 7.8.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. The last nest with birds has emptied, all the birds have fledged. It’s late in the season and though we’ve gone into August in years past, that nest would have had to have been underway by now in order to make it through the rest of the season. So we’re calling it quits and tallying up the numbers. Twelve birds fledged this season, 9 bluebirds and 3 chickadees. Of those, 4 bluebirds fledged from theRead more

Nest Box Update 6.17.25

Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have one active nest with what looks like five nestling bluebirds. All five remaining nest boxes are empty except one which hasn’t been touched in weeks. ————————————— The Cow Pasture nest box still contains the twigs placed in the box by a house wren, but it hasn’t had any other activity since they first appeared in the box earlier in the season. The ETW, Sailboat Pond, and Into the Mist nest boxes are allRead more