Lambton March 2020

Well, March is here, it's warming up and it's time to get out to the boxes for pre-birds-arrival inspections. I visited the Lambton site on March 02 and physically inspected all 5 nest boxes.

Everything looks good to go for the season other than some pole grease and wood chips in the nest tube to hopefully bring back the Black-capped Chickadees for another year.

The Chickadee nest tube. Some of you may recall the battle I had with a male House Wren constantly making life hell for the Chickadees at another box nearby.

After the Chickadees left the nest tube last year, I put in new wood chips in case they wanted to nest again. The birds cleaned most of the chips out but did not re-nest. It was worth a shot. I had a pair re-nest in our backyard box one summer.

It seems a Downy Woodpecker used this nest box to roost in throughout the winter. We also experienced this at home with a couple of our boxes. Too bad they won't nest in a box as I'm told they prefer to make their own nest cavities.

I will leave the box as is for another few weeks in case the bird still uses it at night.

This box is probably going to need replacing after the season. It had a nest started in it last year but the birds abandoned it. The year before that, Swallows did nest successfully in it.

It was a quiet walk, lacking birds other than 1 Northern Cardinal I could hear. Eyes were upon me from one of the watchers of the woods high above me.

Here's hoping to a better nest season than last year here but 7 Chickadees and 5 Swallows fledgling is nothing to complain about.

2019 Final Tally and...

I really dropped the ball with the 2019 nesting season. One part is the cold wet spring we had, which delayed some of the nests and the birds' nests were all over the place with stages.

Tree Swallows which is mainly what I monitor every year.

Then I got really involved in our Peregrine Falcon nest which went on for a lot longer than past years. I guess having rescued two of the young, being my first real rescues, did something to me.

3 of the 4 young. Photo credit to Roger Leekam, fellow watcher.

In the end of the nesting season, I had 91 fledged Tree Swallows and 7 Black-capped Chickadees. I really thought I was going to hit 100+ but things happened like eggs stolen, nests abandoned before egg laying (never count your birds until they have hatched), a nest box knocked over and those 5 young died. It's funny to me that in '19 I had 19 nests and 91 fledged. Yes, I'm a bit of a numbers guy.

It is early February and while we have quite a bit of time yet, I'm getting my head around the 2020 season. Mental notes on what I could do vs what I have to do.

My friends up at Area One have started relocating some of the boxes, putting them in more accessible places. It's better for us with monitoring and better for the birds since the boxes are getting swallowed up in the growth. One issue is the growing number of House Wrens at this location. It is recommended to get the boxes away from the growing brush and hopefully deter the Wrens. Perhaps start cutting back some of this overgrowth too. But it's not my land, so I cannot make that decision.

Lambton is good to go but I will make another trip to the boxes in March and April.

The Forgotten Land I am still debating about. Should I continue or take down the last of the boxes and let it be forgotten? 2019 was a bad year for the nesting birds. I am getting no help from the organization. I will not add to the area, that I know. I haven't been over to look at how the boxes are doing but will before March.

The Creek did very well for the first time. The 2 original boxes I discovered finally came down recently. They were very old and dilapidated. I have been trying to find out who set them up, so far with no luck. It would be nice to have 2 new boxes up to replace those ones. I have 2 other boxes there that could use replacing as well. All 4 of these mentioned boxes did have successful nests in 2019.

I cannot stress enough about the importance of taking care of bird boxes. It's not a good thing to set them up and then forget about them. It's unfortunate how many people do just that, never considering the mess left behind with old nesting material, fecal sacs and quite possibly deceased birds inside.

How nest boxes should be set up is just as important and another time I will post a reminder about that.

I hope to do better with blogging about the 2020 season. I thank everyone who has followed me the last few years through all the ups and downs.

The Late Nest

Back in mid-July I reported having discovered a late Tree Swallow nest at the Forgotten Land. I suspect it may have been the adult pair who were in a box nearby where 4 of their 6 eggs were stolen although I really don't know.

I chose to leave the nest be for many weeks and not disturb the birds.

Recently I went back for a check, figuring they would be gone by this time. I had hoped for an empty nest other than the usual mess of fecal sacs. Unfortunately my find was this, the 4 eggs still in the nest. Who knows what happened? I hope it wasn't my one surprise visit to the box that spooked them off IF it was the pair that was in the other box. *sigh*

I cleaned the box out. That's a wrap in the Forgotten Land. A season best to be forgotten. I won't knock having 6 fledged from the one box but am disappointed about what has happened to the other 16 eggs and young.

Yet Another Catch Up...

I don't even know how to get back on track with the nest blog. Just like that, the season is almost over. If you follow my other blogs, you know why things fell apart.

Okay, for starts, I have a new Tree Swallow nest at the Forgotten Land. On July 12th I went to check the vandalized box where eggs were stolen and 2 remained. I knew if the eggs were still inside, that was it for them, they were not going to hatch. I was right, the eggs still sat in the nest. I cleaned out the box, tossing the nest into the grass along with the eggs.

I figured since I was there, I would check the other boxes. All were empty except for one box which is roughly 100 ft or so away from the vandalized box. An adult Swallow flew out. I put my phone to the entry hole and got a photo of 4 eggs inside. This was a nice little compensation of sorts after all the losses here in the Forgotten Land. I still had my grease bucket in the car so I greased the hell out of that post, then walked away, sending my best wishes to this last nest of 2019. I intend on checking this box again later in the coming week, hoping the intense heat and humidity did not mess anything up. I do wonder if it is the same pair from the vandalized box, trying to nest in a different box?

As of right now, the Forgotten Land has had 6 Swallows fledge. Fingers crossed we make it 10 in a few more weeks.

Moving on over to Lambton. So far the Chickadees have not re-nested even though they recently excavated the box after I refilled it with wood chips. I have my doubts now but I will still keep an eye on the box. As for the one Tree Swallow nest...

a neat photo I took in the last days of this nest being active.

All 5 young Swallows successfully fledged. I cleaned out the box and inspected the others just in case there may have been another surprise (which there wasn't).

That makes for 11 fledged Tree Swallows between the two nest sites.

Now let's go to the Creek. Six nests and I'm going with a fair guess of 32 eggs laid; I was not able to get a full count from every nest but with what I saw throughout, this is a close number. All hatched and 30 Swallows fledged. I had the sad discovery of finding two dead Swallows throughout. This happens, that's just the way it is. Not every bird makes it out of the nest for whatever reason. Hence the importance of cleaning the boxes after the birds are done.

Angie and I walk this spot every Sunday so we were able to see the birds regularly, going from the days of nest building right to seeing a tree full of fledged Tree Swallows. Angie said to me, "You did that. Those are your babies." I cannot deny that it warmed my heart and put a smile on my face.

With so many bird species in the area, of course we chance upon other newly fledged birds like this adorable young Warbling Vireo.

I am happy to report that Patty's House was a total success. All 5 fledged. I think at some point in the next week or two I will do a blog specifically about her house.

A young Swallow in Patty's House. This was on Canada Day. When I see the young at this stage, heads out of the box, I stay well away. I do not want to cause an early fledge. The birds don't need me poking around in the box or even getting close to it.

Other cool sightings on Canada Day included this Deer.

And this Monarch caterpillar.

Now we are up to 41 fledged Swallows from 8 nests. That's pretty good. Note the tragedies at The Forgotten Land are pretty much that, forgotten about. Nature does not dwell on such things and neither should we entirely. Next year I will do better about making sure no old box has easy access for anyone or anything, and every box is very secure to the t-posts.

Area One is all that is left to check aside from that surprise nest in the Forgotten Land. Area One will be a challenge while we are in such an extreme heat wave. Also with all the rain we've had, the growth is ridiculous. The wild parsnip is really wild this summer and I would rather not get burned. So I await a cooler day where I can cover myself completely. Hopefully that isn't too far away.

Remember Those Chickadees?

An overdue update but here it is, better late than never...

Remember that family of Chickadees I was helping along? Their first 2 initial nests were destroyed by a House Wren. I set up a different style box a couple hundred feet west, hoping they would find it. I also moved the original box slightly north/east for the Wren to take. The Chickadees found the new box. The Wren never bothered with them or the boxes again yet I still hear him call from across the rail tracks.

Anyway, 7 eggs laid, 7 eggs hatched and 7 young Chickadees successfully fledged! Man I sure stressed about those birds from beginning to end. So this is an amazing and relieving outcome.

First Empty Nest of 2019

As expected my first empty nest of 2019 came from the Forgotten Land. Six young Tree Swallows successfully fledged from their nest box in the last week or so. This same box was the first empty nest of 2018 as well. Last year they had 7 young if I am not mistaken. I am happy about this, especially considering what has happened in the other two nests.

I checked those other boxes and the one pair of Swallows chose not to return after losing all their young.

The other nest still has 2 eggs inside (4 were stolen) and some very agitated parents protecting them. The eggs should have hatched by now. I will leave them be for a couple more weeks and see if a miracle has occurred since.

Forgotten Land - UGH!

I did a check on the Forgotten Land this week. It was a nice cool sunny morning and I traveled by bicycle. It's something I had been planning to start doing with more local nest box areas this summer, better for me, better for the environment. The trip there and back is just shy of 5 kms. In a way it took less time because I didn't have to worry about where to park and then walk from there to the boxes. Coasting down the paved path was wonderful. I haven't ridden my bike in some time, I missed this.

But enough about that, let's get on with my reports. You know this isn't going to be a good one by that title, right?

It started off great. The first nest box has 6 not so young birds inside. Before I know it, they will be out of that box.

Next stop was the box that had fallen "victim" to some vandalism. Imagine my upset when I have it in my sights and the access door is opened. WTF?

4 eggs are missing and 2 remain. I was greeted by some very upset Tree Swallow parents. I thought predation as I discovered that the access wall could be opened with some force, even with the screw inside. Remember these are old salvaged boxes. But if an animal was somehow able to climb that greased up t-post, then be able to figure out that the access door could be pushed open with force from the bottom lip, why would it stop at only 4 eggs? Why was the actual nest not destroyed and even pulled out to the ground? I really have no definitive answer but suspect children from the school. This box is along the edge of their soccer field. Kids have written on it this spring. They may have returned to monkey around even further, I took out that access screw and put it through the front wall this time. There will be no more pulling that door open. I hope the best for the last two eggs.

Now if things could not get any worse...

I arrive to the last nest box only to stress that I don't see it on the t-post. A quick search and I find it on it's side in the grass. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I open the box to find 6 dead baby Swallows inside. What could have happened here?

While looking over this tragedy, an older lady passed by me with her dog. She thanked me for looking after these boxes. She says it's been a joy to watch the birds here, come and go the last couple weeks. Aw man. I shared with her my finds. She was upset but even more angry. She blamed children for this, retelling things she sees in the neighbourhood by some of the kids. She then went into about her youth and how everyone spent time in the army back in her country. We both agreed how different things are now. She thanked me again and left with fire in her eyes. I'd hate to be the next brat she came into contact with.

I pondered some more on what could have happened here. I wondered if I should put the box back up. I decided I would and this time I put the screws in on angles since the heads were very close in size to the holes on the t-post. One screw went in upright, another in downwards. This box won't come off without a screw driver now. I noticed the area was recently landscaped by a large riding mower. The grass was cut right to the post, which was not done like that the last two years. Could the force of the mower knock it off? I then wondered if yes. why that person would not have tried to put the box back up. Then I reminded myself that there are a lot of assholes in this world. Check my most recent Rob and the Animals blog for a really negative encounter with another person.

While I knew this was the last nest in the area, I decided to check one more box just further east. It was hanging by one screw and the grass cut right near the post. No bird nest inside of course. I decided to angle the screws on this one as well. Why not?

So UGH certainly sums up my most recent check of the Forgotten Land. We went from 18 eggs down to 6 hatches, 4 eggs removed with 2 remaining, and 6 deaths. The season is far from over but I doubt we will have a record breaking year.

My final thoughts are about what to do after this season? Definitely some relocating of boxes, away from the public school for one. As for those other 2 boxes in the east ravine. perhaps setting them further back? New boxes are absolutely needed.