No takers yet in the Cow Pasture nest (5/21/13).

We have three empty nests and three occupied nests. The Cow Pasture nest which was cleaned and readied last week for new occupants is still waiting for someone to move in.

This nest has so far fledged four bluebirds. I expect there will be at least one more brood from this nest box.

The bluebirds who have built a nest atop the old chickadee nest next to the Bungee Jump have laid four eggs in the nest. This nest has so far seen five chickadees hatch and fledge. It’s now up to the bluebirds to try and see their young through to fledging.

Four eggs in this bluebird nest at the Bungee Jump (5/21/13).

Three of the chickadee eggs in the nest behind the Sail Boat Pond have hatched. We’ll have to wait to see if the fourth egg is fertile. It looks as though the birds that have hatched had just hatched so that fourth egg may yet break open to reveal another chickadee.

Three tiny chickadees and one egg in the nest behind the Sail Boat Pond (5/21/13).

Last week the nest box in the Amphimeadow contained two bluebird eggs. It now has five.

An increase of three from last week for the nest in the Amphimeadow (5/21/13).

The five chickadee nestlings that had occupied the nest box next to the Picnic Dome can now be referred to as chickadee fledglings, they have flown the coop.

The five nestlings that lived here are now free flying birds (5/21/13).

Last week, through the comment column, Judy Overby asked me what the material, the white material, inside the chickadee’s nest box was. I told her that I’d pick a sample the next time I went into the box. I did. The material is synthetic. It looks to be pillow or cushion stuffing.

Chickadees use many different fibers to top off their nests from feathers to fur to synthetic fibers. I once saw a chickadee repeatedly work at shredding an old tarp which had washed up along a river. The tarp was already fairly shredded but the chickadee worked tirelessly at getting the fibers out of the tarp and incorporated into its nest.

Judy also mentioned that the white stuff in the nest (see photo above), “…looks very much like the white, fluffy stuff we are finding all around our yard.” I haven’t seen what Judy has in her yard but right now in our Wetland at the Museum, Black Willows are putting out seed, airborne seeds. Perhaps this is what Judy is seeing in her yard.

Willow seed ready to be carried off by the wind.

Willow seeds “snowing” down in Explore the Wild. Seed dispersal in action.

An empty nest box at the Butterfly House (5/21/13).

Back to the nests. Looking much like the nest box at the Cow Pasture, the Butterfly House nest box is still empty. But let’s not rush it, the birds that occupied this box fledged only a week or so ago, the parents need time to recuperate before starting anew.

So, here’s the run down of the current nest box activity. The Cow Pasture nest is empty, waiting for a new nest to begin. The nest next to the Bungee Jump contains four bluebird eggs. There are three new chickadee hatchlings and one unhatched egg in the nest box behind the Sail Boat Pond. The Amphimeadow nest has five bluebird eggs within. There is currently no nest in the box next to the Picnic Dome. And, the Butterfly House nest is empty.

We currently have three empty nests and three occupied nests. Two nests are occupied by bluebirds with 9 eggs, four in one and five in the other. One nest box houses a chickadee family with three chicks and one unhatched egg.

See you next week!

Cooper’s Hawk in immature plumage? (5/10/13)

I was very excited when I first spotted the bird in the above photo. I was making the final run of the day, driving from Explore the Wild into Catch the Wind. Glancing over at the swamp between those two areas of the outdoor exhibits I saw the hawk perched about twenty some feet above the floor of the swamp on my left.

Why the excitement over a Cooper’s Hawk? I see them fairly often here at the Museum throughout the year. Cooper’s Hawks have nested here every year since I arrived at the Museum, over five years ago, and probably longer. This year, I’d heard them calling and have seen them flying around the pines on the north side of the campus for several months. They’ve traditionally nested in those pines. When I spotted this particular Cooper’s Hawk I immediately thought, “Alright, they’ve done it again,” thinking this one of their offspring.

This was a reasonable assumption, the bird was in immature plumage, it was sitting in a tree close to the path and didn’t seem at all concerned with me in the Club Car clicking away on the camera, young birds often have to learn what and when to fear something. I thought that this bird must be a youngster fresh off the nest.

After I got back to the office, downloaded the photos and thought about this for a while, I realized, it’s too early for any Cooper’s Hawks to have fledged! Cooper’s Hawks hatched this year won’t be off the nest for a month or more. This bird was either one of the adults nesting back up in the pines or one of the offspring from last year’s nest. This was not a bird hatched this year.

Sure, the bird was in immature plumage, but look at the tips of the feathers, the tail feathers, they’re all worn, ragged. These are not the feathers of a newly hatched or fledged bird. The feathers of a recently fledged bird would be crisp and new.

It takes two or more years for these hawks to acquire full adult plumage which is basically blue-gray on the back and white with reddish barring on the front. This bird was/is still in its first plumage, its first immature plumage. It takes two years for a Cooper’s Hawk to reach sexual maturity. This bird has no blue or gray feathers on its back and no barring at all in the front. If this bird were old enough to nest it would probably have at least a few adult feathers. I see none.

There are no gray or blueish feathers on the back of this bird and the tail looks worn (5/10/13).

It seems to me that this bird is less than one year old and may be one of last year’s brood.

Am I seeing things?

But wait, there’s one thing that I noticed on the bird’s belly, one, maybe two feathers that have reddish barring (barring is horizontal, streaking or stripes are longitudinal). Look at the picture to the right and see if you notice it too. I suppose though, that one little feather (if that’s what it is) does not an adult bird make.

And then it hit me, this wasn’t a Cooper’s Hawk at all! This bird was a Red-shouldered Hawk!!

The tail is much too short to be a Cooper’s Hawk and the barring on the tail is wrong for Cooper’s Hawk. The wings on the bird, if it were a Cooper’s Hawk with a proportionally longer tail, would not extend so far down the tail as it does on the bird in the photo. And, the dark and light colored barring on a Cooper’s Hawk tail are of equal width, the light colored bars are about the same width as the dark bars. The dark bars on the bird in the photo are wider than the light colored bars which is consistent with Red-shouldered Hawk.

The eye color would be more yellow too, if it were a Cooper’s Hawk.

Oh, almost forgot, both species have reddish barring on the breast and belly in adult plumage, so the adult feather that’s coming in on the belly of the bird works with red-shouldered.

I guess what struck me initially about the bird, what made me jump right to Cooper’s Hawk when I first saw it perched there on that branch quietly surveying the swamp below, was its slimness, it looked very lean to me. Long and lean fits more with Cooper’s Hawk, than with Red-shouldered Hawk. And, I was secretly hoping that they (Cooper’s Hawks) were nesting here again and were successful.

So what does all of this matter? It doesn’t matter much at all in the grand scheme, I’m simply trying to work out this little mystery for myself and inviting you to listen in. I’ll stop now. But it goes to show you that things aren’t always what they seem, sometimes you have to take a closer look.

If there’s anyone out there that sees something in the photos, or in my reasoning, that I may have missed please let me know.

Enjoy!

The “Cow Pasture” nest box is empty. Since this photo was taken, it has been cleaned and is ready for a new nest (5/13/13).

Take a close look at the nest below which is located at the Bungee Jump. The five nestling chickadees that were once crowded into this nest are gone, fledged. I didn’t have a chance to clean the nest box after the chickadees had fledged before a bluebird built a nest on top of the old nest. The left arrow points to the old chickadee nest, the right arrow, the bluebird nest.

The Bungee jump nest (5/13/13).

The chickadees that have taken up residence in the nest box behind the Sail Boat Pond have not, as I had predicted last week, added to their clutch size, it’s still four eggs. Four eggs is better than none. The more chickadees in this world the merrier, so we’ll take the four.

This nest had a late start due to bees, wrens and who knows what else, and it only has four eggs, but no complaining here (5/14/13).

The Amphimeadow nest box has been refurbished and now has two eggs within.

Will there be more eggs next week? I hope so (5/14/13).

The first thing that I saw as I neared the nest box next to the Picnic Dome was a chickadee flying into the entrance hole with food in its bill.

“There must be hungry young inside that box,” I said to myself.

An adult chickadee prepares to exit after delivering food to the nestlings inside (5/14/13).

As I opened the nest box I saw five miniature chickadees.

Five nestlings greeted me as I opened the Picnic Dome nest box (5/14/13).

It’s difficult to say whether or not these chickadees will fledge by next week, they’re still rather small. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Last week the Butterfly House nest held three nestlings. The week before I counted four nestlings. Had the fourth fledged just before my arrival last week? I hope so. But whatever happened, they were all gone when I opened the nest box this week. They probably fledged as I walked away from them last week.

An empty nest. It has since been cleaned and is ready to go again (5/14/13).

Here’s where we stand. We now have three empty nests, that is, three nest with no eggs or nestlings. Since last week, The Cow Pasture, Bungee Jump, and Butterfly House nests have all fledged their occupants. Four bluebirds fledged from the Cow Pasture, 3 or 4 from the Butterfly House nest, and 5 chickadees have flown the coop at the Bungee Jump nest. Two of those nest boxes have been cleaned and readied for new nests, the other has had a bluebird nest built over the old chickadee nest (Bungee Jump). The Sail Boat Pond nest contains four chickadee eggs, the Amphimeadow nest has 2 bluebird eggs, and the nest at the Picnic Dome has five chickadee nestlings. Phew, that was mouthful, and maybe a bit confusing!

If you are confused, here’s the lowdown of what’s going on inside our 6 nest boxes:

Seven or eight bluebirds fledged since last week.

Five chickadees fledged since last week.

There are currently 2 unhatched bluebird eggs.

There are currently 4 unhatched chickadee eggs.

There are currently 5 chickadee nestlings.

There are currently three nest boxes with no eggs or nestlings, one of which contains a new bluebird nest (nest material in box). Two of those nest boxes have no nest material.

Got it?

See you next week!

http://www.childressklein.com/falcon1.aspx

The nest is on a building in Chartlotte, NC and the chicks have just hatched. I just viewed the site, the adult was sitting on top of the chicks, so be patient if you want to see them. The next few days/weeks should be interesting to see what the parents bring to the nestlings. I suspect Charlotte’s pigeon population will decrease a bit.

Have fun.

The early season dragonflies emerged late this year. Common Baskettails typically become apparent in March. I didn’t seem them until April this year. They’re still flying.

Baskettails belong to a family of dragonflies most of whom, if not all, have green eyes when they reach maturity. The one pictured below was on patrol just below the boardwalk near the entrance to the Black Bear Exhibit. The ode hovered in one place for several seconds before dashing out to catch an insect or chase away a rival.

A Common Baskettail (5/9/13).

The same individual as above. Note the small dark markings at the base of the wings (5/9/13).

The long appendages projecting from the tip of the abdomen indicate that this is a male (5/9/13).

While watching the baskettail zip around below me I noticed a shiny object on a root stalk floating in the water. It was a Giant Water Bug.

A Giant Water Bug resting on a root stalk just above the water’s surface (5/9/13).

A closer look reveals eggs on the bug’s back (5/9/13).

The water bug above is obviously a male since it would have been a female that deposited the eggs on its back. The male provides both protection and a steady flow of fresh water over the eggs, when its submerged, that is. These insects bite when annoyed, so handle with care.

While in the boat checking the Wood Duck nest box two weeks ago, I noticed thousands, probably millions, of tiny fry in the water, shiner fry. Our resident Golden Shiner eggs have hatched. Again this Thursday while staring down at the dragonfly and water bug, the fry seemed to be everywhere. This is good news for just about every other creature in our Wetlands. Everything from dragonfly larvae, frogs, snakes, mergansers, kingfishers, herons, and even the occasional visiting otter eat the fish.

These 1/2 to 3/4 inch shiners are everywhere in the water of our Wetlands (5/9/13).

Elsewhere, there were several hatchling sliders out basking. Over the past few weeks there have been numerous sightings of the little turtles making their way from last year’s nests to the Wetlands. It’s good to see some of them have made it safely to their destination and are taking advantage of the sunny weather.

A very young Yellow-bellied Slider basks on a small branch just feet from the boardwalk (5/9/13).

One turtle was rescued from the restrooms across from the Cafe. A Museum visitor found the turtle crawling around on the floor of the restroom, turned it over to Jerry (Exhibits), who handed it off to me, who placed it in the water in Explore the Wild.

This little slider was rescued from the restrooms at the Cafe Plaza (5/9/13).

The plastron of the little trooper (5/9/13).

Last year an adult slider was seen searching the Cafe Plaza area for a nesting location. It settled into the shrubs along the entrance to the Train Station. Our little “restroom” slider was probably one of her offspring.

And finally, there have been many, many turtles out basking since the return of the sunshine (we’ve had a lot of cloudy, rainy days lately). Here’s a parting shot of a small group of some of those sun worshipers in action.

A snapper and a pair of sliders (5/9/13).

Enjoy!

Cicindela sexguttata (5/8/13).

What is a Cicindela sexguttata? It’s a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle and if you’ve followed this Journal for the past several years you’d know that I usually start seeing them along the paths here at the Museum in March, and certainly by April. This is the latest sighting (5/8) of this emerald hued tiger beetle since I’ve been here at the Museum. I saw one at my home a few weeks back, but just one, a fleeting glance at one as it landed on my back porch and just as quickly flew off.

The six-spotted tiger beetle gets its name from the six white spots on the edge of the elytra, the hard forewings of the beetle which serve as a covering for its flight wings. Not all six-spotted tiger beetles have such noticeable white spots as the one in the photo (some have even more white than the one pictured) but you can be fairly certain that you’re seeing one of these beetles if you’re hiking along your favorite trail in the spring and a 1/2 inch long, bright green beetle lands in front of you on the path. It’s an early season tiger beetle and the only bright green one in our area, although, in the right light the elytra may appear blue.

All tiger beetle species are predators, most of them run and fly swiftly. Their prey consists of everything from ants to moths to spiders. The six-spotted’s swiftness and large white mandibles make it a very capable predator. If you happen to see one on the path, approach it slowly and watch it carefully, you may see it capture prey and devour it right there on the spot!

Have fun.

The bluebird nestlings in the “Cow Pasture” nest seem about ready to fledge. It’s difficult to see exactly how many nestlings are crowded into that nest but it appears as though there are four. The nest had five eggs when incubation began. It appeared as though all the eggs hatched when I inspected the box last week, but it now looks like there are four nestlings present. I don’t like to poke around too much inside the nest, not at all in fact, so it’s sometimes a guessing game as to just how many birds are in the nest.

These bluebirds should be ready to go by next week (5/7/13).

Looking more like chickadees every day, the birds in the nest next to the Bungee Jump will probably depart sometime this week. I’ll probably see these birds following their parents around the woods later this week taking lessons on how to feed themselves.

It won’t be long before these birds leave the nest at the Bungee Jump (5/7/13).

The chickadees who have chosen to nest in the nest box behind the Sail Boat Pond apparently have worked something out with the House Wren and the Bumble Bee that had been delaying this nest’s progress over the past several weeks. The bee is gone, the House Wren moved on to hassle some other cavity nesting birds and the chickadees have deposited four eggs in the nest. I suspect that there will be a few more eggs by next week’s inspection.

Four new eggs for the chickadees at the Sail Boat Pond (5/7/13).

Ready and waiting for a new nest to begin (5/7/13).

Not much to say about the nest in the Amphimeadow, it fledged its birds, has been cleaned and is ready for occupancy. Once the birds that have fledged are on their own the parents may start a new nest in this box. We’ll have to wait and see.

This nest was not very productive last year due to construction of the Into the Mist exhibit just across the path from this site. This season promises to be a more quiet season, and hopefully a more productive one for the bluebirds.

Last week I reported that the chickadees in the nest box next to the Picnic Dome had started to incubate the 6 eggs they had deposited there. The eggs have hatched. Next week these naked, blind, fragile little creatures should be fat and happy.

Newly hatched chickadees in the “Picnic Dome” nest (5/7/13).

If the bluebirds that are in the nest box at the Butterfly House are still there next Tuesday, I’d be very surprised. I was a bit nervous about photoing these birds after opening the nest box and seeing how large they were. I thought that they may bolt, fly out of the nest before they were ready to fledge. I was very careful, moved slowly and quietly and got the shots that I needed.

Good luck out in the real world, bluebirds (5/7/13).

Curiously, this nest started with five eggs, hatched four nestlings, and now it appears that there are only three birds in the nest. Perhaps one of the birds had already fledged moments before I inspected the box. I didn’t see any activity nearby, but I could have simply missed seeing the bird. It wouldn’t be the first time that I overlooked something.

As it stands now, we have two nests of six occupied by bluebirds, one with four nestlings and one with three. Three nest boxes are currently being used by chickadees, one with five nestlings, one with five or six nestlings (not exactly sure which) and the other with four eggs. One nest box is empty.

So, till next week….

I was talking with Ranger Rock at the Bungee Jump about the chickadee and bluebird nests here at the Museum, when he looked up and saw one, then two, large birds soaring in the gray, overcast sky above. Both birds were Bald Eagles.

First Bald Eagle.

This bird (note the molt) was traveling with the eagle above (5/7/13).

And finally, almost fifteen minutes after the first two eagles passed, a third came into sight riding the beginnings of the same thermal as a Red-tailed Hawk.

Another eagle with what looks like a Red-tailed Hawk (5/7/13).

Another view of the eagle and the hawk (5/7/13).

I’ve said it many times in this Journal, “Keep your eyes to the skies.”

Enjoy!

—————————-

(The sky was a miserable gray sheet of a backdrop for photography so I took the liberty to lighten up the images a bit with computer software.)

This little slider is fresh out of the nest (4/19/13).

This is always an exciting time of year, and many kids had an opportunity to see these little herps make their way to the water, some of the turtles getting an assist from the kids.

Ada (daughter of former Butterfly House employee Robin Dale) is obviously excited about seeing this little slider (4/19/13).

The kids, here at the Museum on a school field trip, all pitch in to help the turtle make it to the water safely.

Good luck little turtle!

An Eastern Phoebe has decided to nest on the top of a block wall in one of the vending areas here at the Museum. This area is quite jammed with loud and excited kids during much of an average weekday morning. The bird persists and doesn’t seems too flustered by all of the noise and shuffling back and forth of the kids as they enter and exit the restrooms or pound on the soda machines.

This phoebe has most of the day to itself. It’s the mornings that are the most stressful with school groups coming and going (4/20/13).

Four eggs can be seen next to the duck (4/27/13).

About three weeks ago (4/11/13) I saw a wood duck fly out of one of our duck nest boxes. It was the end of the day and the bird flew off into the dense willows on the far side of the Wetlands. This past weekend I, Ranger Kristin, and Animal Keeper Jill launched the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a flat bottomed aluminum boat, into the water to have a peek inside the nest box.

I taped an iPhone to a long pole, bent at the tip to give the proper angle, and we set sail for the nest box. The camera, on video and activated as we approached the nest box, was carefully aimed at the entrance hole. A quick few seconds in the box was all we needed.

The images are less than perfect but I could see at least eight eggs in one view, but I estimate that there are a dozen. Only time will tell what emerges from the nest box, one of two nest boxes located here in our Wetlands.

The nest boxes were installed in the Wetlands in January of 2011 for the purpose of tempting the Hooded Mergansers that winter here each year to nest, to raise a family right here in our Wetland. Both Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers will utilize nest boxes as both are cavity nesters. This is the first year that there has been any activity in the boxes.

Most of our mergansers departed in March with a few non-breeders lingering into the first weeks of April. Wood ducks are year round residents. They come in to the Wetlands in the evening, but since no one is here after 6 PM, except for security personnel, the birds go unseen, they have it all to themselves.

I can see what looks like at least eight eggs in this shot (4/27/13).

When I saw the female leave the nest box those three weeks ago I didn’t know whether she was simply inspecting the box or had started a brood. There’s only one way to tell what was going on inside the box, have a look.

The nest box opens from the front so I thought it wise to go in through the entrance hole, an iPhone seemed the best way to do that. The photos on the right are the results of that effort.

But as I said earlier, only time will tell what hatches from this nest. Incubation varies but is somewhere in the area of thirty days. As I don’t know when incubation began there’s no way to tell when it will end, when the birds will hatch.

Wood ducks, as all ducks, are precocial, their young are hatched ready for action. They are completely covered with down, their eyes are open, they don’t need to be fed by the parents, and although they won’t be able to fly for two months or so after hatching, they can walk and swim.

One of our two wood duck nest boxes.

About a day after they hatch the female will coax them out of the nest box while she floats in the water below. The young ducks will climb up to the entrance hole (there’s netting inside the box to help them do that), look around a bit at their new world and launch themselves into the air.

Wood ducklings are light and fluffy. Terminal velocity is fairly low with such light creatures so the impact of hitting the water is minimal. Our nest boxes are both eight to ten feet above the water, these birds can survive leaps from much greater heights. I’d wager that they could survive a leap from just about any height due to their weight and general softness and flexibilty, but I don’t know that for sure. Even so, there are far greater problems that will face them if and when they make it to the water, but we’ll discuss that another time.

For now, good luck to the turtles, phoebes, wood ducks, and all of the other creatures out there as they attempt to raise their families. It’d be a less interesting world without them.

The “Cow Pasture” bluebirds have hatched. It’s difficult to see but it appears that only four eggs out of the original five have hatched. I can see only four beaks in the photo below but it’s possible one bird is buried beneath the pile.

Only four beaks are visible, but how many birds are in this nest (4/30/13)?

Last week I reported that the chickadees in the nest box at the Bungee Jump had hatched. They are doing well and are starting to look a bit more like birds, sort of.

Seven days days later, these chickadees are no longer naked, pink masses of flesh (4/23/13 & 4/30/13).

I typically check the nest boxes in a specific order, start at the farthest nest (Cow Pasture) and work my way back to the Butterfly House nest. The next box on the list from the Bungee Jump is the nest behind the Sail Boat Pond. But here we have to pause, take a brief detour before opening that box. We have to go back a few days, to last Saturday.

As I walked past the nest box on Saturday afternoon (4/27) I noticed a chickadee on the box cautiously peering into the entrance hole. Another chickadee was in the tree above the nest box calling to its mate. It was an, “I’m irritated” kind of call, a “something’s wrong here,” message being broadcast to whoever was listening.

I could also hear a House Wren calling from the dense brush nearby. Perhaps the wren had started a nest inside this box, which was originally constructed by the chickadees. Maybe this is what the chickadees were so upset about. I didn’t know, of course, if that was the case, but it was a reasonable assumption considering the House Wren’s reputation for doing such things. The series of photos that follows helps illustrate the story.

A chicakdee carefully pokes it’s head into the nest box to have a look.

Its mate flies in from the tree above the nest box, the pair think about what to do next.

Perhaps reinforced by its mate’s presence one bird goes in for a better look.

As the birds perched on the box they were very cautious in their movements, not the typical quick frenetic behavior of chickadees. They were being extremely cautious.

Some sort of discussion follows the bird’s peek inside the nest box.

Thirty some photos later I left the scene satisfied that the birds’ nest had been renovated by the wren calling from the brush and that they, the chickadees, were trying to decide what to do about it. The birds, both chickadees and wren, were still there when I left. I would check on the box in a few days anyway, perhaps the wren would have settled in by then, they usually win these nest site battles.

It’s now Tuesday again and I am approaching the nest box. I open the box and look inside. Before me is the chickadee’s nest as it was the week before, a moss-bottomed nest with animal fur on top. The nest was undisturbed, in perfect order. The chickadees had apparently worked something out with the wren.

A perfectly normal chickadee’s nest (4/30/13).

I poked around to see if there were any eggs just under the fur and moss. No eggs, but the nest was now vibrating, and I could hear a buzzing sound. Something was emerging from deep within the nest!

The bee buzzing around the entrance hole to the nest box (4/30/13).

It was then that I remembered the bumble bee that had, I thought, used the nest box to get in out of the cold last week. The bee obviously intended to stay, it was going to nest within the nest box. Most bumble bees nest on or under the ground in an old rodent’s nest or other suitable structure, but this one had found a nice comfortable bird’s nest to settle into.

The birds had been held at bay by the bee, it was the bee that had the chickadees behaving in such an odd way on Saturday.

Thinking back, I regret what I did next. I removed the entire nest in hopes that the bee would leave and the birds would start over with a new nest. I should have let the bee have its way. It would have been just as interesting to watch the progress of the bees as they built up their colony into a working industry. An opportunity lost. I won’t do that again!

Last week, the nest in the Amphimeadow held three large bluebird nestlings. On Tuesday they were all gone, flew the coop, the first of this year’s bluebirds to do so.

This nest will be cleaned out and readied for another brood (4/30/13).

The nest box over near the Picnic Dome still has six chickadee eggs. They should all hatch by next week.

Although only three are visible in this photo, there are six eggs waiting to hatch in this chickadee nest (4/30/13).

The Butterfly House nest originally contained five eggs. During last week’s inspection four had hatched and I had hoped that the fifth would follow. It doesn’t seem as though the last egg hatched.

I can only see four nestlings in the nest at the Butterfly House (4/30/13).

Finally, we have two empty nests, one emptied by this observer, one emptied by the birds themsleves, by fledging. Two nests hold a total of nine bluebird nestlings, five in one and four in the other. The remaining two nests are occupied by chickadees with 5 nestlings in one and six eggs in the other.

Except for a few egg failures, all seems to be doing well. There has been no predation, no hypothermia, and no abandoned nests. Besides the “bee” incident, where no harm was done to either party other than several day’s labor rebuilding the nest, all occupants seem to be making due, and even flourishing.

So, until next week….