Mice nesting and probably wintering in one box

 We had two boxes with mouse nests over the summer. One is empty, with maybe the start of a nest, but no mice:

The other one is getting to be in rather tall plants and has had the mouse since spring. I believe she may have had three litters there. She even carried the pups up the pole back to the box, when a couple of them jumped out. They were full grown in summer. Now she had another litter who are also almost grown:

I gave up on that. She can have the box forever. There are 31 other boxes for birds.

10 birds fledged since last time

I checked the three boxes that had nestlings last time. All three were empty (of birds). One had two failed eggs, so that box had only 2 nestlings, I had guessed 3 at some point. So my rough count of Bluebirds fledged is 23 for this year.

I did not expect to see much of the birds. At that early hour, only one of the parents was seen in a tree nearby. Nobody was begging for food. In other boxes, a few wrens are nesting. I found one with eggs.

Other places I have seen the young bluebirds with the parents, making very slight calls, no real song from any of the  group. And begging for food as well:

Season wrapping up..hopefully no more drama!

I checked the three active boxes, but since they all have the hole rather than the slot, I did not get any pictures. Some are over 10 days old and I was afraid they would fly out. All 11 nestlings are at the stage that the ones above are at, or a few days younger.

I will check the boxes again in 7-10 days and expect to find them empty. The next blog entry will just be the final tally of fledged birds.

One box was really bad looking, so I made a new roof to "Box 1." Normally I do not do repairs till October. The poles all need a lot of work. There are no birds in nests on the Nature Center side. The wrens (6) fledged. maybe some house sparrow have nestlings.

Three nests continue, one a mystery...probably raccoon got it

I mentioned that I never see the young a week later. There was one time I documented the fledged birds:

2017 ENTRY ON YOUNG OUT OF BOX

I checked the four remaining nests, all on the South bike-hike trail. Box 2 had chicks on  7-2. They were probably 3-4 days old. So let us say they hatched on 6- 30. They would be now 10 days old. Now there were none. The schedule for birds is normally:

• Day 12: almost completely feathered. except for mid-ventral region. Incomplete bill-wiping movements and head scratching first observed.
• Day 13: Mid-ventral region is feathered. sleep with head on scapulars. Can tell sex by bright blue color of primaries and retrices, and white on retrices. Sleep in typical adult manner.
• Day 14: no unfeathered areas visible. Wings are longer. Capable of weak, short-distance flight. Bird can right itself and make short shuffling movements backwards and forwards.
• Day 15: completely feathered. 

 So the ten day old chicks would not have flown out of the box. The box itself was pushed down. A raccoon hanging on it, and twirling on the pole could have moved it down. One other box (no nest, swallows earlier) had also been dragged down. Raccoon predation is rather rare, this one is the first I suspect racoons of.

Of the three remaining nests, Box 4 had chicks a few days old.

The other two have nestlings with eyes just opened. I did not get the eyes in the picture, but in Box 5, one of the 4 eggs never hatched.

Four birds fledge, Blogger caretaker gets a B for this BUT WE ARE FINE

I recommend the nest boxes that have the slot at the top. I've never had any predators get in, and if you have a smart phone, you can check on the birds' welfare without opening the box. Just slide the phone top in, use a flash.

Those are in fact swallows peeking out. Anyway, I did not follow my own advice. I had already photographed the Box 16 nestlings and seen that they were fully grown. Just then the thought came that I would never see these again. Only a few times have I seen the fledged birds hang out by the nest box for even hours after they fledge. So I opened the box to get a little better view with sunlight. The parents had been freaking out about me. I should have known they knew the chicks would fledge today.

And with my improved photo, the first one flew out:

I tried to carefully (you don't want to slam the door on any bird no matter what) close the door, but a second one slipped out as I got the nail back on. Then I went to check the wrens and ten minutes later (camera in slot) the remaining two had gone. I can only presume I did the parents a favor. They need to coax (feed less etc.) the birds to leave at the end. They landed all over, and hid in the grass and flowers at first. Stepping very carefully, I retreated. The birds will need to make it some 20-30 feet to the tree line by the golf course to be safe in the trees.

House wrens (6) are coming along nicely, and will be out in a week or so. The bills are already getting longer wren shape.

Three nests with chicks, two with eggs

On the South side, at the far West end, some chicks just hatched maybe yesterday.

Another box had similar young birds. Two other boxes had just eggs.

On the North side, the Box 16 family is coming along fine, both parents ready to attend the young as soon as I left. The eyes are now open but I did not get them to open the eyes or react in any way.

Next door there were some House Wren chicks, about six. They look just like Bluebird chicks when a few days old, but clearly smaller.

North Side Nest and other birds

I did not have the bike, so only opened a few boxes. The chicks in Box 16 were napping. The cropped photos shows pin feathers coming through, but the birds still have pink skin with no body feathers. The eyes are closed (not fully developed).

Today I had more interaction with the parents. The male alone in a tree, the female with insect or spider in mouth.

Click the photo for a bigger view.  She would not go inside till I left. Both were on top of the box at one time.

A bit of video, but no entry to the box.  I did not see the insect when I took the video, so there was in fact food.

Other than that there was the male house wren singing next door, you might hear it in the video, and some meadowlarks and a Baltimore oriole hidden in some flowers.

Orioles are usually more visible:

Purple Martins (as well as a house sparrow) have one or two chicks in the Martin house.

Still just one second clutch growing, Four nests at egg stage

I went back by bike to check the known nests on the south side. No development there, all four had eggs, But at least no eggs were broken.

The North side nest is coming along fine, you can easily count four chicks.

Interestingly, with eyes closed, the birds sense more light. The box would not open otherwise, so not sure this is safe to be poking a bill out.

A bit of video

The wren next door (male) has not bothered Box 16 since he now has his own eggs to guard. House wren eggs are very small and brownish.

Some bluebirds hatched

I was not really spending time here, on my way back from birding. I checked a few tree swallow nests, ones I had seen with swallows 1-2 weeks back. Most were empty. I am not cleaning these till much later, but you can tell the history easily.

The nest is a swallow nest, because it's lined with feathers, like goose feathers. There is poop in there, so they nested. No dead chicks and no unhatched eggs.

The bluebirds second clutches are coming along. These four on the North side, Box 16, hatched 1-2 days ago.

I got a little video, but none of the neck sticking up kind when they think I am the parent.

Several New Clutches, Last Swallows in Boxes

There are still several fully grown tree swallows in some boxes, though most boxes are vacated.

This family, I think 4 left inside, are in a small box with a slot. All four come to the slot when the parent is heard. I think the slot is more democratic than a nest hole. On the 21st, at least 3 boxes still had swallows.

There are new clutches of eggs. These are bluebirds, though white. They are in one of the boxes the mice had thru May. On the North side Box 16 had 4 eggs, same on Jun 21st. About time to hatch!

There are few boxes needing more stable poles and one silly box on the South side left in a lot of forbes and sumac. I can walk through some grass, but this just needs to be moved, finally. There is a wren nesting in it now, first wren nest with eggs.

Three new eggs

I did not have the bike with me, necessary to check the South side, but on the North side there is one new set of eggs.

This in a box where a wren next door broke all the eggs in May.

Swallow activity was ongoing in 5 our of 18 boxes. The last one I did not hike to. I managed to quickly peak into a small box (swallows are hard to see in a big box), and the nestlings were about a week to 10 days old.

Miserable May: only 9 Bluebirds Fledged

In a typical year, some 20 bluebirds fledge from 5-7 nests. There were so far 5 nests, but two were failures, on the North side. Three nests with some success were on the South side. Those are on the limestone bike/hike trail. See map.

There are now no bluebird eggs in nests. I cleaned some boxes, took note of wren activity and put grease on those nest boxes that could possibly get a second brood. It's red axle grease. Keeps the ants from the box for a week or two.

There is really nothing to do now but check some 10 likely boxes a week from now. Many boxes still have swallows, they are not checked if active. One swallow nest seemed to have started early, so i hoped they had had success. No idea, the female was still inside the nest. Is she still incubating?

Strange spring of low activity

Swallow nesting is way down in the South end, normal by Nature Center. Bluebirds seemed to have finished nesting for now, with only 11 chicks soon to be fledged. No new eggs were found. Box 4 team is ready to fledge with 7 days.

Box 6 four chicks fledged, one egg never hatched. Box 11 has one fully grown bird, it only had two.

I have a feeling more bluebirds will appear in June, but nothing is happening now. There was some ant activity, but not in nests with bluebirds. I will have to take care of the ants in a week or so. The one ant colony was in a wet spot and sought the box as dry ground.

A bit of cool weather, but no harm to Bluebirds

On the South side, Box 4 all hatched, you can count 5 bills here:

Box 6 had sleepy chicks, a few days ahead of Box 4.

Daddy looks on as I open the box:

Box 12 has just 2 chicks.  Near that a turkey hen (there are usually geese) nesting nearby attacked me.

On the North side just one chick in Box 8, with 3 siblings any hour now, very new to this world.

It's in the middle of the prairie. Swallows are late, but one box had chicks, 5 had eggs.

And on the South side we STILL have one mouse with her one pup in a box.

I also found an owl with her/his nearly full grown owlet in the North prairie.