On the North side, the one pair of bluebirds still has four eggs, their final attempt this summer. They had not hatched. So from 18 nest boxes on the North side, only four bluebirds fledged this season.
South Side
Nesting activity continues. The angry bluebirds at Box 9 still tried to attack me. There was obviously something inside, and it turned out to be the last of the five.
In Box 4, the four had just hatched.
There are at least three that I can see. Will keep track of it. Then Box 8, with four eggs, had just two hatched. I found that if I whistle a bit they will raise their head. One did.
(Sorry for the gap after these pictures...scroll down)
Then the Box 11 set that had the odd ball of a chick now has these
I would be surprised if they are gone in a week, but will be quite grown by then.
Sparrows and Swallows
House Sparrows nested in a box on the North side earlier.
All that is left is feces and feathers. The swallows left the feathers and the sparrows use them.
When I go through the 32 boxes in the fall, I usually find one or two swallow nests that did not hatch at all. Not sure if they were infertile eggs or if cold weather that ruined the clutch.
There are still many active nests. The family on ths South side at Box 9 has the most advanced nestlings, their second set. The five are fine inside, I just took a very quick look. The pink skin shows that they have maybe a week to go.
But outside, the parents and a kingbird joined to attack my helmeted head as I approached the box. A picture and video.
As I was back at the road, they suspiciously made sure I really left. A dickcissel also made alarming noises near the box. They do not nest in boxes.
The four eggs were hatching on Monday, three days ago, so I had to go see how they were doing.
On the 9th:
Now there were four hungry mouths, with eyes closed at this point.
And we have video as well:
There are two nests with four eggs. The one on the North side from a pair that abandoned two eggs in the nest next door.
WRENS
I seem to have more wren nest than last year, at least four active right now. I may have missed some as they nest after the bluebirds to the end of summer. The nestlings on the South side had just hatched, with some eggs still there. Among the mess of sticks the male puts in to make a platform is a perfectly smooth grass nest.
The parent was near by. They make a lot of wren chatter noise but never attack me. The parent is here.
In box one of the South side a set of eggs after swallows left weeks ago. That was so hard to get a photo of, I will not open it again.
Finally the mystery of boxes 13 and 14 on the South side was solved. Some bluebirds tried it at first with two eggs, then I saw wren activity. For weeks I did not check it. It had a clutch of wren eggs that hatched and were raised and left, except one runt died in the box. The birds tend not to use that box again. So they went to box 13 next door most likely for their second clutch. Those are eggs now. Last check on those, the boxes are too much work to get to in tall vegetation. The nest had a few feathers too, but the wren sticks are there over the original bluebird grass nest.
I don't know how else to compile the happenings, so we'll just go South and North. The North side boxes are the ones you can see from the Nature Center. There are no swallows left in boxes.
SOUTH SIDE
Box 11 four eggs are hatching TODAY. One had hatched, but was so tired from the effort the head is bent down. The one egg looks big because it has half a shell stuck on it.
Box 9 five nestlings have grown a lot, flight feathers coming within a week. Four bills plus one head down.
Here are the parents, who were a bit mad at me opening the box:
In the middle, I had some some bluebirds fly around the boxes, so I checked two boxes there. One (8) had a surprise four bluebird eggs. It had swallows earlier.
They were next to a box with wren eggs. I hope they get along. Under that are the two boxes with the bluebird on his box.
NORTH SIDE
Box 16 has the same two eggs it had for a few weeks. It seems to be a failure. Next to it is a box I cleared out of wren sticks. In it the same pair have made a new attempt, the female flew out as I checked that box.
Failure:
New attempt:
Finally, the nature center staff found a Killdeer nest near the road. They nest right on gravel. The parent is in danger of getting run over as it does its distraction display.
The nests on the South side have one with 4 eggs, one with hatched young and one with 4 eggs. I saw the female on that nest so I did not scare her off the eggs, merely closing the door.
These are the hatched young, the fifth egg will have hatched today.
So from these we have possibly 13 young coming. I have given up on the two egg nest on the North side (Box 16).
Wrens
The wrens are active. On the North side I found this stack of sticks. They have a purpose, to fill up space. There was some indication of nesting material at the very top, but it is hard to move that stack and not have their nest fall off.
House Sparrows
Two boxes have house sparrows. This one very near the nature center building has almost grown young:
These four young left the nest the past 5 days or so and there are now 10 more bluebird eggs to hatch
Two eggs in Box 16 remain on the North, saw one parent. Brave effort next to wrens.
On the South side there are 5 eggs and 3 eggs in two boxes. These two raised four young and now have 5 more eggs:
Swallows remain around boxes, a few young ones still peeking out of the hole. In a week all will have fledged. Box one South side fledged 5-6 swallows, one did not make it.
WRENS
On both sides at least one pair of wrens is active. Box 14 on the South side is hard to access at this time, but it was claimed by wrens a week ago. Box 13 had grown swallows 5 days ago. The wrens will not harm them, they are smaller themselves. But as soon as the swallows left, 3-4 days ago, a male wren filled the entire box with sticks. They already have the neighboring nest box!
Evicting is not something I like to do so I never take out built nests. But if you get to the box before the wrens lay eggs, I think it's fair enough to take sticks out. The role of a male house wren is to fill every hole in his neighborhood with sticks, whether they use the box or not later on.
Another option is to pull up the box with wren sticks and move it to a different location, further away from the trees.
The nestlings left, both swallows and bluebirds, remind me that the whole thing is about food. Here is a picture from past summers with the day old nestling (with no eyes open) begging:
Today mostly swallows were seen. These two came to the box slot at the top. I like those boxes as I can even get an iPhone in the slot to see inside:
A couple of videos show fledglings begging. The job is to get the nestlings out so the parents feed the ones still inside. There are two inside and two outside.
OK, now, to summarize the activity still going on. It was more than I expected and all kinds of things to report so I will separate birds by species:
SWALLOWS
About half the swallows had fledged, half the boxes had some activity. If I see a bird inside and go to the box, it flied out if it is the parent. This one at the hole stayed in so they were actually two grown young. Eventually a parent showed up, on the outside. The one on top is a fledged bird, did not get fed in the 20 minutes I watched.
There were a number of boxes checked by this method but I did open one or two.
BLUEBIRDS
These birds always leave me more mysteries. The box that had four young leave a week ago has now five new eggs. I saw both parents and even cowbirds outside, but the cowbirds cannot get in to lay eggs. Cowbirds are in the first photo:
The parents:
On the North side the renesting (probably, there was a failed attempt in May 100-200 feet away) had three eggs last week in Box 16. Now there were two, the one has some grass on it but is whole.
Both parents were around and one flew out of the box. I checked the box next door that had swallows earlier. Now it is filled with house wren sticks... and soon a nest on top. I suspect the house wren broke one egg of the bluebird clutch.
On a happier note the four in Box 3 are ready to go any day now:
HOUSE SPARROWS
Any unclaimed boxes near a building will be claimed by house sparrows. I found two, and in the other I poked around to see two speckled eggs at least. They use the feathers the swallows leave so it is hard to count eggs.
