As of Tuesday morning (4/18/17), we have 10 eggs and 16 hatchlings in our six nest boxes. All 10 eggs belong to chickadees. Three of the nestlings are bluebirds and 13 are chickadees. We lost five bluebird eggs though the nest destroying behavior of another species of bird. When I last looked into the nest box at the Cow Pasture it had five blue eggs within its pine straw and grass lined nest. This morning, it was empty. As myRead more
Posts tagged: #nest box
Bluebird Update 4.11.17
Another week of nesting season has gone by, some things remain the same, others have changed. We currently have 24 eggs, all being incubated, and three hatchlings in our six nest boxes. If you remember, there were 24 eggs in the nests last week. Three of those eggs have hatched. So how can we still have 24 eggs? Read on to find out. The Cow Pasture nest held 2 eggs on Tuesday last (4/4). There are now 5 eggs in that nestRead more
Bluebird Update 3.28.17
All of our six bluebird nests boxes are active. Two have bluebirds nests within and four are being utilized by Carolina chickadees. The Cow Pasture nest box contains a nearly complete bluebird nest. It was empty last week but the fair weather has apparently motivated a pair of bluebirds into action. The ETW nest box, located at the foot of a service road on the back side of our Outdoor Exhibits Loop contains a not quite completed chickadee nest asRead more
It’s Bluebird Time: Update 3.21.17
It is nesting season! We have six bluebird nest boxes here at the Museum. I’ve moved four of the boxes to more favorable locations due to future construction or plant succession at the previous sites. Here’s where the nest boxes are currently located: As it was last year, the Cow Pasture nest box remains where it had been, in the meadow near the Train Tunnel. The Sailboat Pond nest box has been moved to a service road on the backRead more
Bluebird Update 7.12.16
The eggs in the nest box at the Cow Pasture, our only active nest, have hatched. There are now four bluebird nestlings in the nest. By the way, if you read these bluebird updates each week, you’ve heard me mention the Cow Pasture nest box each time. It’s the first nest box on my route as I check the nests on Tuesday mornings. This nest box is in a location on the campus that’s only visible to the public through aRead more
Bluebird Update 7.5.16
One week after finding 4 bluebird eggs in the nest at the Cow Pasture, not much else has changed. There’ve been no changes to either of the five nest other nest boxes, all are empty except the Cow Pasture nest, although the eggs in that nest have still not hatched. The only change in the Cow Pasture nest is the fact that the eggs have been moved, rearranged. It’s part of the incubation process for birds to turn their eggsRead more
Nesting Season Continues
Nesting season is still going strong. A pair of green herons has taken up residence in a willow tree in the wetlands, great-crested flycatchers seem to be using a wood duck nest box for what is probably their second brood of the season, and many other bird species are proceeding with their annual attempts at increasing the bird population. Green herons have built a nest in a black willow within easy view of the main Wetlands Overlook. In fact, in 2013,Read more
Bluebird Update 6.28.16
The only active nest on our six nest box bluebird trail is the Cow Pasture nest box located near the train tunnel. It contains four bluebird eggs. It’s not too late to start a second brood but I suspect this will be the last bluebird nest of the season. See you next week.Read more
All in a Day’s Work
It was midday on a hot, muggy day in June. There were four juvenile raccoons on an island thirty or so feet from the boardwalk where I and two museum visitors stood watching them. An adult raccoon (I assume the mother) was in the lead. She was trying to coax the little ones into the water. What were the raccoons doing on the island? There’s a wood duck nest box on the island. It was installed about five years agoRead more