A Few More Done... One to Go

I managed to get over to the Creek and clean out the last of the boxes as well as make my way over to the Forgotten Land and get that last box done as well.

I was disappointed to find 5 eggs not hatched at the Creek and well as one decayed teeny tree swallow baby in another box.

One egg in a box, which actually I thought was not being used.  Angie named this box Griffindor House.

Four eggs left in another box, which I believe Angie called Slytherin House.

Then over at the Forgotten Land, I found two unhatched eggs in that box.  Who knows why these things happen?  I'm just happy that everyone else made it out.

So, let's see where we are at now...  23 fledged from 5 nests in the Forgotten Land.  As for the Creek, confirming a 7th nest and up to 37 eggs, minus 6 eggs that did not hatch and 2 dead young, we've got 29 fledged.  Lambton was 10 fledged from the 2 nests.

14 nests and 62 fledged so far.

I have to try and tackle Area One at some point.  It's becoming an increasingly difficult thing to do up there because the meadow is not maintained at all, the growth is overwhelming and hard to walk through, then add in some wild parsnip and the probability of ticks.  I've brought up again about bringing the boxes closer to the walking trails.  I hope this gets done before the 2022 season or I may abandon Area One for my own safety.  I mean, I would be willing to ensure the boxes are good to go come the spring but as for egg counting and so on, I won't worry about any longer.

Lastly, Angie informed me that Blogger apparently cut out the option to have the latest blogs emailed to people.  Why would they do that?  Not that I have many followers but anyone relying upon the email notifications, it is gone now.

I will be back sooner or later with an Area One tally.  I need to finish it for this season, my mind won't let me rest otherwise. 

The Creek - Part One

I visited the creek on Friday.  It was a cooler morning, a tad rainy early on, and I was dressed head to toe in rain pants and jacket, figuring this material would be a great way to keep any ticks off me since the material is slick.  I had boots on, long socks with my pants tucked in.  Yep, I was all prepared to go check these boxes.

I hit the one stretch, which is four boxes lined up, that Angie has nicknamed after the houses in Harry Potter.  Cute to some.  Silly to others.  But it's helped as easily as numbering them.  I should add that I have only once seen the Harry Potter movies; but Angie is a HUGE fan.  Anyway, to my surprise (and slight disappointment) all the nest boxes (3 of the 4) were still very active.  Damn!  I felt like I just hit a wall on my quest to tackle the boxes.

I drove over to the other end and the boxes were quiet.  I checked the three in this area and all were done.

The first box is along the main road.  I parked in the right lane, put my 4 ways on and ran up to the box for a look inside.  All gone.  No eggs.  No bodies.  Total success.  No time for a photo because of where I was parked.

Now off to the other two boxes and there is a place to park, safely off the road.  It's a work day so I am trying to cut time where I can, hence not doing as much walking.  

First box...

 I wonder what is inside? 

Out comes the nest.  Hmmm?

One egg that did not hatch.

A short walk to the next box and I see something in there...

Aw man, one who did not make it.

I hate the subtraction at the end of the season.  I wish they all would make it but that is nature, right?

Tree swallows flew about the field as I left.  No doubt the families from these two boxes.  "Good luck little ones" was my silent wish as I made my way back to the car.

There Go (some of) the Birds

So I checked out Lambton and the Forgotten Land this week.  As expected, the birds are pretty much done for another year.

I first hit Lambton on Tuesday despite the near 40 C humidex early on in the day.  With only 2 active nests, I could manage.  I just realized that I never updated about Lambton when I discovered the second  tree swallow nest.

I'm happy to report that all the eggs hatched and all the young successfully fledged.  That's 10!

I did notice a couple tree swallows flying about the area so I guess the birds are still hanging around.  None of the other boxes have any nest activity other than wrens taking over that chickadee nest tube.

Then on Wednesday I went through the Forgotten Land.  A tad cooler weather made it a pleasant outing going through the nest boxes.  Unfortunately I did not have the absolute success like Lambton.

The first box I checked had two very much decomposed young swallow bodies inside.

I used a stick to sift through this nest, counting the bodies, ensuring there wasn't any others underneath.  We can only guess what happened to them.  Perhaps those brutally humid days we've had?

Another nest, another little decomposed body found.

I'm sparing you another bony sight but seeing the pile of dark feathers upon first look at the nest told me someone did not make it.

Another nest had one egg still inside.

The box I called "old reliable" which was replaced this year once again had 100% success.

All the nest boxes are emptied out as I go through them.  I left the doors open to deter wasps from setting up inside.  

I removed a wasp nest from one empty box here.  Fun stuff as the little buggers came out in full force, showing their disapproval to what I was doing to their home.

Something I found rather shocking in the Forgotten Land was the amount of wild parsnip suddenly growing throughout the area.  It's scattered about and the plants range in size from 12 inches to almost 6 feet in height!

Wild parsnip is a hazardous plant to a person if you happen to break the plant, it's oils get on your skin and the sunlight shines down upon it.  That's the jist of how it works.  It's also an invasive species of plant.

Fortunately I can make my way around the parsnip plants this year but who knows how this will all look in another year or two?  I've reported the plant appearing here to the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority.  Am I supposed to report it to them?  I don't know but I figure it's worth trying.

I made my over to the last couple boxes.  I know one was empty last check, and it is still empty.  As for the other one, I heard noises coming from within as I approached.  The young birds weren't at the entry hole and I couldn't see them at all. 

So curiosity got the best of me to try and get a better look, trying to gauge how far along they are from fledge time.  I slowly opened the access door with one hand while the other I set over the entry hole to prevent any early fledges IF they were near that stage.  

As I slowly opened the access door, watching for any movement from the birds, which did not occur.  I held my phone over the nest to take a photo and see what was going on.

The young remained quiet.  I'm not an expert on these things but can say they are probably 10 days or so from fledge time.  I've got it marked in my brain to come back in the third week of July for another look.  Hopefully I can say 25 fledged the Forgotten Land when I do revisit.  For now it is 20.

I have it in my head to go through the Creek on Thursday or Friday, weather pending.  It's going to be cooler but just have to see where there's some dry spells to check those boxes out.  

I haven't been "pimping" out these blogs this year.  So I thank the couple of you who are still following along here even without my social media posts about the latest blog published for a read.

Area One - Revisit

A couple weeks back I revisited Area One, checking those other couple "later" nests.  I am happy to report that both are housing nesting tree swallows.

Mom didn't want to leave the one box so I let her be.  For now, I can easily assume there is 5 eggs/young inside.  I'm sure I have mentioned before that 5 is the average for a swallow nest although 6 happens quite often as well.

You can see how agitated mom is here and can understand why I chose to just back off.

And there was hatches in the other box.  I definitely could make out 5 young.

That now brings us up to 13 nests and 70 eggs/young for Area One this year.

I can't believe I am already getting my head around the fact that I will be checking the boxes again soon, cleaning them out.

Time sure flies!

Area One - Finally an Update

 A few weeks back I visited Area One.  We had a few brutally hot and humid days prior and finally a cooler but wet morning presented itself so off I went.  Big mistake.  The mosquitoes were absolutely horrific!  I borrowed this image from Google but it was this bad. 

They were everywhere, in the woods that I cut through from one area to another (I expected that); but the open meadows were just full of them too.  Thankfully I was covered head to toe except my hands and my face but eventually I put a mask on to give me some more cover.  I swear I have never experienced so many mosquitoes like that in my travels anywhere, in all of my life.  I guess the good thing is that this is a healthy food supply for the birds nesting here.

I almost gave up checking the boxes but trudged on.

I left my camera at home so I only took a few photos of some nests.  I regretted not bringing the camera as I chanced upon 2 coyotes, together, about 20 feet from me.  A large gray one and a slightly smaller auburn one.  Figures, eh.  I also pretty much walked right into the back end of a white-tailed deer.

So, here is what I ended up with from my nest box checks...

11 tree swallow nests well on the way, either full of eggs or hatching birds that morning and a few had young varying from days old to a couple weeks.  Crazy how that seems to have just happened.  It felt like this long lull of no birds and then BOOM!  There was 2 potential nests on the go, lots of grass and a few feathers within but without confirmed eggs, we sit at 11.  I aim to go back and check them very soon.  The peregrine falcon fledge watches have delayed me visiting again.

I apologize for this kinda rushed, scattered blog, but hey at least I have good reason, right?

If I am to share at least one photo from the box checks in Area One, it would have to be what was happening in Wood Duck Alfie's box.  Momma tree swallow there with young hatching that morning.

In total through the 11 nests, there was 60 eggs and young.  

I should add that I found 6 house wren nests and can confirm 3 were active.  I suspect the other 3 were just dummy nests.

Again, I apologize for the lack of blogging here.  For one, I know I don't need to check the nests as often as I did the first couple years.  Taking less photos doesn't help me create a very exciting blog either.  I know the few who actually follow this are okay with this, just knowing how things are going, and what the results are at the end of the season is all that matters.

Lastly, I visited Lambton again the same week as I hit Area One.  I confirmed the second nest and 6 eggs within.  

As of now, that's 25 tree swallow nests and 132 eggs.  If I have a couple more to add, we've got a record breaking year.

Stay tuned...

Here Come the Eggs - 2021

 I've gone through 3 of the 4 nest box areas in the last week.  Angie accompanied me on one of them which was nice; she's my bird spotter while I am distracted at the boxes.  We had a couple nice sightings which I will show at the end of this little blog.

It's been an odd spring.  I feel like we missed a lot of birds this year during migration.  Not as many warblers, not as many of the warblers we did see, and a number of species we just didn't get that normally we do.  But I guess this really has nothing to do with a nest blog but in a way it does.  It felt like forever waiting for the swallows to return.  Week after week, nothing, then one or two, and suddenly here we are...  swallows every where!

Swallows on nests.

With eggs!  Tree swallows don't make nests, they make art.

Currently I have 13 tree swallow nests and 66 eggs.  There are 2 more nests in development which I hope gives me at least another 10.  I still have to check Area One which should easily double what I have right now.

The breakdown is this...

The Creek - 6 nests and 32 eggs with another nest that is hopefully still being worked on.

Lambton - 1 nest with 5 eggs, and another nest being worked on at another box.

The Forgotten Land - 5 nests and 29 eggs.

I hope to get through Area One in the next few days.  This is the location I hope to get help with, to train someone to help me and perhaps one day take over.  It's the furthest from home location with the most boxes.  The landscape is getting more and more difficult to go through as it is getting so over grown.  Time will tell I suppose.

Unfortunately after one of my nest box rounds, despite really shaking myself down after getting back onto pavement, I managed to bring home an unwanted guest.  A dog tick!  Ewwwww!  I will have to be more careful, taking extra steps like I have before, such as bringing extra clothes and changing before getting into the car.  I would put my trail clothes in a plastic bag, trying it up...  after shaking them all down.

Angie found this tick in the laundry room by my trail pants.

On our walk through the creek, we had a couple other cool bird sightings.

Savannah sparrow.  He was singing loud and proud on one of my boxes.

Green heron!  This was a new species to add to the species list for the area.  It's been years for both Angie and I since we last saw a green heron.  I wished I had brought my 500 mm lens after seeing this bird.  I knew I had work to do so I lightened my load and put on the 250 mm lens.  Darn!  Oh well, hopefully we will see this bird again since we walk the creek almost weekly.

A few visits in the last while at the creek also had us see these creatures...

The resident coyote.

White-tailed deer.  I just realized that I posted about them in my last blog.  Ooops.

A mink.

Turkey vulture sunning in the early morning.

There are perks to monitoring nest boxes aside from helping nesting birds...  you get some exercise and you see some wildlife.

I will be back soon to share my latest report on Area One.

Cheers!

Ready & Waiting

Well, here we are, spring 2021.  I've visited all the sites over the last couple weeks and the boxes are ready for the birds.  Since I had cleaned the boxes at the end of last season, it wasn't too much work.  Overall inspections and emptied out a couple mouse winter homes (nobody within and no babies).

I replaced one box that had seen it's last nest, last year.  A bit of a frustrating task because whoever installed the box many years ago did not use screws, instead they used 3" spiral nails.  I wasn't prepared for that.  Initially I tried to pry it off with my screwdriver and had little movement.  Then I thought about giving up for now, returning another day with a hammer.  But I didn't want to cart around this new nest box while I checked others in the area.  No, this was going to be today.  I took the box apart by removing the screws.  Then when it was nothing but the back ball on the t-bar, I just went all primitive like and beat the hell out of it with the handle of my screwdriver.  

The wall broke apart, the nails lost their grip and many minutes later, it was off.  I cursed whoever nailed it to the post.  That was a first for me.  I didn't dwell on the setback and just got the new box up, and moved on.

I had some help in Area One this spring.  Myself and another tackled the boxes on separate days, making sure all are empty and closing up the access doors.  We just kept in touch with each other on what we did.  The help was appreciated.  I just don't seem to have enough time this spring to do everything as quickly like past years.  

Tree swallows were in good numbers here at Area One when I visited on April 8th.

Angie has joined me through the Creek area over the last couple Sundays.  A leisurely walk, looking for early migrants and whatever else may be around.  We enjoyed the sights of 6 white-tailed deer nearby the one morning. 

The deer kept an eye on us but didn't stray too far.

We saw one tree swallow near where we parked last Sunday.  I'm sure many more are on their way.

Over at the Forgotten Land, I added another box.  A neighbour made it and gave it to me.  It's a beautiful box made from leftover materials from a major renovation.  Unfortunately the entry hole is just a little too big for my liking so I attached this odd looking piece to the front to reduce the hole size and it also adds some protection from say, a raccoon trying to reach inside and grab eggs or a young bird, IF one managed to get on top of the box.  I have people saying the box is silly looking and no bird will used it.  All I can say is "we shall see".  No sense in just having it sit at home and not set up out there somewhere.

One lone tree swallow has been at the Forgotten Land since last week.  He's already picked out his box for the season.

Lastly, over at Lambton, approximately 2 weeks ago, I set up the chickadee nest tube again.  I filled it full of wood shavings.

I checked it out yesterday to see if anything has happened in the last week.  The shavings have been excavated and the tube is filling with black oil sunflower seed.  What the?!?!  I'm unsure if someone is putting seed in the tube or are the birds using this as a seed cache?  I know of a feeder a few hundred feet away from here but whoever is filling it uses the cheapest of bird seed and you might see 20 or so actual black oil sunflower seeds within all the corn and millet.  I have found bread, rice and seed in other nest boxes throughout all the trails, quite randomly, this year.  A new thing for me.  I know there's a lot more people outside, just walking around because of the pandemic and so much is closed.  But seriously, how dumb can some be?  It's a drawback to having boxes in public spaces.  I really hope this doesn't continue through the nesting season.  It's like during the winter, where I have access doors open at boxes, and some people come around and keep closing them up again.  I know they mean well, and have no idea why the doors are open.  Open doors really deter the mice but if someone comes by and closes them, the mice will find the boxes and use them.

It's a cool rainy week ahead so I don't expect too much action in the coming days, like more birds returning, but I will be observing from afar, counting the swallows and looking for others who may have an interest in a nest box.  I keep hoping for bluebirds.

Thanks in advance to those who will follow me through the 2021 season.  

A Good Start

You may recall from my last blog a few months back that I was given new nest boxes to replace all the ones in the Forgotten Land.  Through a couple mild days late in 2020 I assembled the boxes.  I also went out another morning and took down the remains of the old boxes.  Then through February I painted them and just days ago I applied roof shingles that a buddy of mine gave to me.  It's always nice when items are donated.

Then yesterday, March 1st, I went out to the area and set the boxes up.  It wasn't the nicest of mornings with the wind chill, and gusts between 50 to 70 km/hr but they are up and ready for the birds.

The box here in the photo is on the post where I had "old reliable".  I hope they like it.

I'd say this is a good start to the 2021 nesting season.