First Eggs and Nests of 2017

NATURE CENTER SIDE

The North side boxes were numbered and some moved to new locations along the maintenance road. The very last three boxes had nothing. The rest have either swallow nests started or in one case a grass nest by bluebirds. No eggs in it yet.

SOUTH SIDE

The south side was burned by the staff and looked barren a month ago. Some plant life is returning. The birds are fine with it. Swallows only catch flying insects.

Bluebirds like some trees like this around for roosting and waiting to find pray on the ground. One pair has selected this black box that is on a rather tall pole:

It had the full five eggs. I believe this is the male of that pair on a locust tree branch:

One more pair of bluebirds seems to have a nest in that middle part. No eggs in it.

SWALLOWS

Near the Western end of the new gravel road there is a fluff clutch of swallow eggs. No bird was incubating on it. They may wait a week or two and the eggs may survive.

Another pair had built a full nest that had been taken over by ants. They were angry at me for taking it apart and destroying the ants.

I ended up putting reversed duct tape on the pole, as well as the neighboring pole.

Lastly, a nest box had been driven over by workers with a tractor. It had a grass and feathers swallow nest in it but luckily no eggs.

Signs of Nest Box Selecting

I met someone that asked about the bluebird boxes today, and she shared some experiences. Usually the conversation starts with "bluebirds, aren't those nasty?" No, those are Blue Jays! Then I explain that these are small thrushes and have blue and orange. Then the person responds, "oh, I've never seen one," We try to look for them but see only swallows.

I only went through the North side 18 boxes today. pairs of tree swallows are flying around the boxes and some pairs seem to have chosen a box and are defending it.

This is box 9 in the middle of the prairie. The swallows do not lay eggs till May, but may build the nest this month. In any case they guard it against other swallows.

One pair of bluebirds has claimed a box near the school house on the top of our prairie. The trees of the golf course fence are nearby. Of the two boxes, they chose the more worn out one, 13. The new looking box 14 behind it may take a year to have appeal. It is also unncessarily large. I hope they stay.

 We only had little success on the North side with bluebirds last year. The two boxes nearest the Nature Center, 1 and 2, are claimed by house sparrows.

Almost Spring

I have another blog on birds of Nebraska. Here is the last entry.

A few shore birds have been located. Wilson's snipes and both yellowlegs.

Pelicans are migrating through and both horned (molting, bottom picture) and eared grebes were seen at Wagontrain recreation area.

This is the time we see ducks in all kinds of puddles before they settle into secret nesting areas or move North.  Ring-necked duck, blue-winged teal.

March Readyness

There are actual signs of bluebirds around the boxes. First I had a check of the North side and was surprised to see a tree swallow. It was merely flying around. The bluebirds and swallows start to have a conflict with the boxes in April. On the North side there was one box near the Nature Center claimed by house sparrows. I will not do anything with that, I doubt very much any bluebirds will nest in the nearest other box. But it needs monitoring.

On the South side I had a surprise as well. They had done a burn. Boxes 1 and 2 in the burn area:

Near these boxes was one male bluebird. Click the picture to see him in a boxed area.

The detail shows him at the same branch. Further along the bike and walking trail no boxes had burned. The entire prairie was burned. Only 5 killdeer were visiting.

Cleaning out boxes and new numbers on North Side

I moved a few boxes in the fall to the service road behind the school house and the boxes had odd numbering in any case. My improvement was to number them along the route in the order I normally check them. The numbers are a bit conspicuous but I can also get a picture of parents and nestlings with a numbered box now. There were no bluebirds today. Box 5 shows the example of the new numbering.

A few boxes are now unpaired, such as 15 which was moved out of the way of Prairie Jazz and the last box, number 18. That is behind these two along the service road.

I will see some bluebirds around the boxes by March. Three pairs typically on the South side. it will be interesting to see if we get more bluebirds on the North side than last year, now that the boxes are a bit more away from people paths. The tree swallows do not seem to mind people. They fly over the ponds for the insect food so this North side is convenient for them.

I moved a box off the parking lot area that had house sparrows. The house sparrows will claim maybe one box near the Nature Center. They also fight for the purple martin houses on the tall pole.

North Side Boxes

The boxes on the North side are scattered across the small area of the prairie in this picture.

They are along the foot paths mowed into the prairie, in pairs. Many were chosen by tree swallows, one by blue birds. A few of them were empty, as two pairs of tree sawllows will not nest 10-20 feet apart.

There was a box near the parking lot, only used by house sparrows.

A few boxes had just ended up in bad spots, so I had collected about 4 by the school house, just to put them somewhere. Two of those were moved along the service road that I have marked "new boxes", as well as the parking lot box. Two remain close to the school.

Two new locations (highlighted by frame):

The third one is by the last mowed path off the service road. It will get a pair from the main area, probably one near the creek and log house.

 This is where it is, in the back (to the right of this path):

Fall Maintenance Started

South Side Boxes

There is a new gravel road on the South side. All these bluebird boxes can be seen next spring from the bike pedestrian path, whereas the area was closed to the public in the 2016 nesting season. I did see one bluebird today, and we even had a few at the last Christmas bird count.

I started some repairs and minor moves on the South side 14 boxes. The first box as you cross the (old) bridge was moved to a new pole. I left the old rusty pole there as I was out there by bike (bikes are not allowed on the foot path, leave them at the gravel) . It is of no use and will be removed.

This box had bluebirds nesting earlier, so I did not want to move it too far so they or their offspring can find it. The other box to its left was taken out as it lacks proper clamps. So now there are two empty poles in that first part. Moving along, box 5 looked terrible and had ants last June so I scrapped it and put a new box.

The pole is rusted but seemed solid enough. Some poles are rusted and have no rebar metal rod, they all will fall over easily and need to be replaced within a year or two.

At the middle, going to Coyote point, one box was part time under water last June so I moved it up to the ridge. The first picture has a square to show where it was. The second shows the two on the ridge now.

At the far end I moved one box, which last had swallows, so that it is now on the right. The left box was not moved, mainly because it had bluebirds at that location.

These were both badly behind sumac plants and far into the grass, They could be reached from the back trail, but that tends to get overgrown, so they can now be accessed from the gravel road, though a good 40 feet into the grass. Here the box needs to be a bit far out, as the tall trees can't be too close. The job of moving was the worst of the day, a good 10 minutes of pulling and turning effort as I have no power tools to do any of this, The rebar was pounded back by hammer and the pole goes over it:

Finally, I hauled the old box out by bike. I can carry just one box.