Thursday, July 9, 2020

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.




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