Area One and Final Tally

 A long overdue blog about Area One and the final number(s).  Blame the blazing hot summer.  Blame some health issues on my end NOT covid-19 related.  Blame covid which has my wife working from home and tying up the computer much of the day.  Excuses excuses excuses.  But here we are finally...

I estimated that we had 70 eggs in total up at Area One.

In my cleaning of the boxes, I found overall 3 deceased young Tree Swallows that did not make it.  I also found 2 eggs not hatched.  So that makes for 65 fledged birds.  It was a very good year.

Coming to clean the boxes weeks after the birds are done, finding deceased young wasn't like finding a whole body as insects already devoured the birds.  There would be a bed of feathers and in those feathers I would find the skeletal remains.

Here's a nest I am about to clean out.

Here is what I found inside.  You can see some bones.  I would use a stick to pick these nests apart, doing head counts from the skulls that I found.  For some reason I cannot find a photo of a bird skull from this outing.  You get the picture though.

We are facing challenges in Area One now as the meadow is becoming quite over grown.  The pandemic is one part to blame, having less staff and volunteers to try and tackle this issue.  Currently it would seem this part of the land is not of such importance, taking a back seat to large maintenance projects elsewhere about the property.  It is becoming a haven for House Wrens.  I found 4 active nests and numerous dummy nests.  

I found 1 Wren egg not hatched so they too had a great nesting year.  

This can mean that in 2021 they will be back even stronger especially as the habitat becomes more favourable to this bird species.

I had a difficult time locating a few of the nest boxes in the tall growth which was well over 5 ft tall.  From this view point, normally I would be able to see 4 nest boxes.

It was a cooler morning when I did the box inspections and cleaning but after some time, I was getting overheated as I was dressed head to toe, protecting myself from insects and random toxic plants (wild parsnip).  The face mask is to protect me from breathing in the dust, fecal matter and anything else that can come out of one of these nest boxes during cleaning.

I did evict one mouse from his house he set up in a box.  Their urine and feces can be harmful to the box and future nests.  He made a brave attempt at scaring the hell out of me when he took a flying leap right out and at me.  Ha ha, good times.  I did apologize to him as he scurried away.

Mouse nesting material.

I left the nest boxes open to deter the mice from setting up house.  Unfortunately over the cold months, some do gooder(s) will chance upon these boxes and close them up again.  I can't get upset; it is better than someone coming along and smashing them like some other people have experienced on their nest box trails.

Now for the final tally of my 2020 season...

131 successfully fledged Tree Swallows.  There was 28 nests and 147 eggs.

How's that for a banner year?  I really hoped to break 100 this year and certainly did.  Still no Bluebirds despite every location seeing them over the years.  Maybe 2021?

I will be blogging here again well before the next nesting season.  I do have one nice surprise to tell about soon.

I would like to give a shout out to Jennifer for following me again this season and commenting throughout.  I haven't pushed out these nest blogs like I do my regular animal blog and it's nice to know they have not gone ignored.  There is a visit counter to each blog and most of the 2020 nest blogs show 1 to 3 hits total.  Of course I don't do this for the attention or recognition but it is nice to know of others who care and have interest in nest box trails, having their own boxes to take care of, or just follow me along on mine.

Stay tuned for some great news soon.  Oh, and stay safe!