Forgotten Land 2020 Tally

I recently did a walk through the Forgotten Land, knowing the birds would be done in all the nest boxes.

Sure enough, that was the case and here is what is what I ended up with, including a slight recap for anyone just jumping on board with the nest blog.

5 of the 6 nest boxes were occupied with Tree Swallows.

I had 27 eggs total throughout. I suspected I could get one or two more but was content to leave the birds be at that point.

4 of the 5 nests were 100% success. All eggs hatched. All young fledged.

1 nest was abandoned, leaving 6 unhatched eggs. Who knows what happened?

So, for 2020, I had 21 fledged Tree Swallows in the Forgotten Land. That's a very good year, especially compared to 2019 with 6 fledged from one nest and the other 3 nests were all failures.

Unfortunately most of the boxes saw their last year. They were falling apart in my hands as I opened them up to clean them out. These boxes are easily a decade and some years old and the wood is brittle. I knew this would happen at some point. I am just happy they held out for the season. Losing the box I called "old reliable" did bother me a tad; it's been a great productive box every year.

I have many months to get some replacements and hopefully it will be with as little cost to me as possible. I have since contacted "the organization" about getting some through them. I like to think the success of 2020 would entice some new interest.

Instead of throwing a bunch of photos in here, I made a small collage of that walk through the area.

The coins I found along one of the foot trails. A small payment for my good deeds.