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
Posts tagged: #nest box
Nest ox Update 6.6.23
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. There is currently only one active nest. House wrens have fledged and bluebirds have hatched. ————————— The four house wrens that had been in the nest box at the Cow Pasture have fledged. I could hear the family warbling away in the woods behind the nest box as I confirmed their departure by peaking into the nest. It was empty. The Explore the Wild and Into the Mist nest boxes are empty. The nest 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
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
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 7.12.22
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