Updates Updates Updates!

We've been on vacation this past week and it gave me a few opportunities to check the nest boxes through the 4 areas I am monitoring. I'm torn between doing one big update on all of the areas or breaking it down. Reason is some great news at two of the boxes. I will start keying this blog and see where it takes me. I hope you follow this one to the end however it goes.

For starts, The Forgotten Land. There are three Tree Swallow nests on the go. One box has 6 eggs while the other two boxes currently have 3 eggs each and I expect 2 or 3 more in each of these boxes (Tree Swallows normally have 5 or 6 eggs in a nest).

Next up is Area One. It was long overdue to get up there and go through the 21 boxes. We can blame the cold wet spring and some personal issues at home on not getting there sooner. Area One is the furthest location from home that I monitor.

As I key this, there are 12 Tree Swallow nests in varying stages of development. They range from still building the actual nest to eggs and I've seen anywhere from 1 to 5 eggs. Once again, we can blame the cold wet spring on how delayed some of the nests are. I'm hoping the early stage nests will continue but won't know for certain until my next visit in about 7 to 10 days.

Here's some odd bits about Area One. I found a few dummy House Wren nests and Tree Swallows have built their own nests over top of them. Last year we got overrun with dummy nests but none appeared until after the Swallows were done nesting and out of the boxes. Mid-summer seemed late for Wrens to start doing this but it happened. The boxes were cleaned and ready to go this spring so having some Wrens beat the Swallows to the boxes was unexpected. Both these nests shown below have Tree Swallow eggs in them. You can see the Wren nests beneath which are made of a lot of sticks. Tree Swallows use grass and feathers.

I also found that we have two active House Wren nests in Area One. I don't hate these Wrens but if you've been following my nest blog the last couple years, you know they've caused me and two pairs of Chickadees some heartache and frustration.

Next up, let's go over to Lambton. One active Tree Swallow nest that I checked on May 26th and there's 4 eggs in the nest.

But here's the BIG news starting with a recap. I had Chickadees building a nest in another box. A male House Wren came along and destroyed that nest. Days later the Chickadees were back in the box and tried again. Then along came that Wren and once again destroyed their nest. I made a hard decision, deciding to take down that nest box. I felt it was cruel to keep it up and have the Chickadees continue to try and nest in it. I set up a PVC tube nest a few hundred feet west of this spot. Someone had given me this a few years ago to try out and I had no luck at home, so I hoped the Chickadees here would find it.

A few days later I checked the box and all the wood chips were removed but I saw no birds. I could hear the Wren calling up the path a ways and wondered if it was him that cleaned it out. That was approximately 2 weeks ago.

My latest visit to the nest tube had me see an adult Chickadee fly out from it. I had a quick peek inside and was thrilled to see 7 tiny eggs. Please send your best wishes to the Chickadees at this nest and hope for absolute success.

I hung around the area for about 45 minutes. I watched and listened. No Wren to be seen or heard. For the sake of the Chickadees, I hope the Wren has moved on or at the very least is happily nesting elsewhere. I'm super stoked about this but know I should not let my emotions get too invested.

Lastly, over to The Creek. Angie joined me for this walk as it's our normal Sunday morning spot to go. The company was nice and she rocked at bird spotting, getting us a few new species for The Creek's list which included Black-billed Cuckoo and Cliff Swallows as well as pointing out a Mink.

The two crappy old boxes both have Tree Swallow nests inside. One box has 6 eggs.

The other has at least 2 so far. I don't care for these boxes as I believe I mentioned they are old and a tad brittle. Also, to check or clean either box, one must remove the whole front of the box completely off. So during nest season it's best to try and see from cell phone photos taken at the entry hole.

The stretch of the creek where I set up 4 boxes, I have one Tree Swallow nest on the go. The female would not vacate the box when I opened it up, so obviously she is on all the eggs she will have. I took a quick photo and then closed up the box, silently apologizing for disturbing her.

It's funny that I really thought this stretch was going to rock for nesting birds and I only got one nest out of four boxes. Maybe next year?

Here's the kicker. I had a couple "not so great condition" boxes at home and took them to another section of the creek. I thought the area was okay but not promising like I thought of the above mentioned spot. I figured no harm in setting up these two boxes as it was better than them sitting in my shed. Well to my surprise, both nest boxes have Tree Swallows in them. One box has 5 eggs and the other is still in development by another pair we watched this morning bringing material inside.

The cool thing is the one box was given to me by my friend Patty.

Some years ago we had a decorative bird house in our backyard that was in the design of an outhouse. Chickadees took to this box 3 separate times over the years. I was fortunate enough to see the young fledge one of the years.

That box was very special but after years in the yard, sitting outside through all the seasons, the box was brittle. I took it down and tried to find another box just like it, but never could. I still have that old box in my shed on the shelf for memories. Then one day Patty contacts us, that she had a surprise to bring over. It was an outhouse nest box similar to our old one. AWESOME! The box sat out back for a few years but the Chickadees never took to it.

You might be wondering what's the deal about the outhouse? Well, we've got a few actual bird boxes in the yard and the outhouse was just a unique looking ornamental box we picked up while road tripping in St. Jacobs. It was comical to us that of all the places to nest in, some birds chose the outhouse.

"Patty's House" as I call it unfortunately got some unwanted attention from a Squirrel or two as it sat outside. The outhouse sign was stolen. The wood chewed in a few spots. I took it down until this spring when I decided to put it up along the creek. It may not be the prettiest but it will help these Swallows nest this season and probably a few more years to come. The fact it was a gift from a friend and is now finally getting some use from a couple nesting birds is wonderful. Future blogs about this nest will probably be regarded as "Patty's House" updates.

I've wondered how much interest there is from others about this nest blog of mine. I'm sure I won't have to wonder about Patty's House having at least some interest from one person I know when she hears the news.

Okay, that's it for now. Thanks to those who read right through to the end of this blog. I'm currently at 20 Tree Swallow nests for this season and one Black-capped Chickadee nest. Yes, I haven't forgotten about the two House Wren nests but I don't look too hard at those ones as it's difficult to see what's going on in those nests without being really invasive and possibly destructive.