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As we have spent time watching the Carolina Chickadee nest, we have seen both Mom and Dad returning to the chicks repeatedly with insects. The chicks eat all day long. We noticed that as the mama brings in food, she often leaves the nest with something white in her beak. We did some research and learned that this is a fecal sac. It is a self-made, organic birdie diaper. The sac keeps the poo contained and mama keeps the nest clean by taking out the dirty diapers. Sometimes as many as 60-70 per day. This keeps the nest clean and free from bacteria that can cause illness and attract predators. Isn't nature fascinating! Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs! Box 1  Box 3  Box 4  Box 5  Box 6 What an AMAZING Start to Our Bird Watching Season!Our season started on March 27, 2019, when students cleaned out the boxes to prepare for the season. Early Bird Gets the WormWhen we arrived to clean the camera box, we found that a Carolina Chickadee couple had claimed this box as their home. Within a few days eggs began to appear. Lights, Camera, Action!With no time to spare, we installed the camera and began to record while waiting for the ability to stream live. After many false starts, we began streaming our bird box cam live this week. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuuX-zSa0pM CES Bird Cam Check out our 24-hr live coverage of the chickadee family in one of our nest boxes. It's on the home page of this website.
 June 29, 2018 Box A - We have six house wren eggs in this box. Box B - All house wren fledglings have left. Two or three fledglings left when the door was opened but one remained in the box. There had been 7 eggs in this box and there were no eggs remaining, indicating to me all eggs hatched and all young fledged except the one still there. That would have been quite a large group. Box 1 is still empty. Box 2 has 6 house wren eggs. Box 3 has the very early beginnings of another house wren nest. Box 4 is a completed nest but still no eggs. It is combination of grass and moss. Will be interesting to see what nest this belongs to. Box 5 has its bluebird young still there. They are around 16 days old and should be leaving before the next box check. All seemed well with them. I only cracked the door a little and took the best picture I could. Box 6 is empty.  Box 5 - Bluebird Fledglings May 17, 2018 Box 1 Is busy this week, as we have met the mother bird both times we checked the box. She originally laid eggs on the grate but eggs are now to the side of the grate.
May 17, 2018 We temporarily placed a camera in the box to get a closer look at things. We are thinking this is a tufted titmouse. The weather is cloudy and lighting is poor so it is difficult to tell if there is a tuft on her head. Box 2 - Partial nest - no eggs Box 3 - Complete nest - no eggs Box 4 - Complete nest - no eggs Box 5 - Empty Box Box 6 - Tree Swallow nest 5 eggs. Mother there both times we checked this week. Box A - Empty Box - few twigs, no change. Box B - Empty Box - Birds Fledged! :)  Box B - Babies are growing nicely. May 7, 2018 May 7, 2018 So sad to report that our efforts to support cavity dwelling birds has inadvertently caused the death of 5 babies and a mother bird. Apparently the wind blew the guard in front of box 3 over the entry hole. A mother chickadee was trapped inside with her babies. They were all dead when we discovered them. We fixed the guard and cleaned out the box in hopes of having other birds nest there in the future. Box A - Empty Box B - Growing babies Box 1 - Partial nest Box 2 - Partial nest Box 3 - Cleaned out box Box 4 - Bluebird nest built on top on moss and twigs. Box 5 - Cleaned out box. Box 6 - Complete Bluebird nest - no eggs yet.  Box 4 has seen lots of action. May 10, 2018 Triumph and Tragedy May 3, 2018 Today we found the good the bad and the ugly. Box A - Still Empty Box B - 8 chickadee babies sleeping? Box 1 - Partial nest Box 2 - Partial nest Box 3 - 5 hungry chickadee babies Box 4 - twigs on top of a moss beginning. Box 5 - Completed Bluebird nest but the 5 eggs we celebrated Monday have been tossed from the nest. :( Box 6 - Completed Bluebird nest but there is the addition of some trash in the cup of the nest. Hoping we still have a Bluebird there.   BUSY TIMES AT CES April 26, 2018 Box A - Empty Box B - 8 eggs hatched, lots of hungry babies! Box 1 - A chickadee has started working on a nest! Box 2 - Partial moss nest. Box 3 - Mother flew from nest as we approached. 6 eggs. Box 4 - Twigs placed on top of moss. House Wren?? Box 5 - Bluebird nest complete with 5 eggs! Box 6 - Bluebird nest complete! We have babies!! April 23, 2018 Box A - Empty Box B - 2 eggs hatched! Box 1 - Empty Box 2 - Start of a moss nest Box 3 - 6 Chickadee eggs Box 4 - Less moss than last week. Curious! Box 5 - Complete Birdbird nest! Box 6 - Grass nest started  Box B - Two newly hatched chickadees  Box 2 - First signs of a nest in two years. Yea!
 BOX B - 8 Chickadee Eggs April 19, 2018 Box A - Empty Box B Mother flew from nest as it was approached. Eight eggs in box. Box 1 - Empty Box 2 - Empty Box 3 Complete nest with 6 chickadee eggs Box 4 - Partial moss nest Box 5 - Some grass Box 6 - Few strands of grass  Box 3 - 6 Chickadee Eggs April 16, 2018 Our mother chickadee in Box B has been very busy. There are now eight eggs in the nest box. Box B - 8 eggs. April 5, 2018   March 19, 2018 Central Elementary School students met with Ranger Hamel and learned all about bluebird monitoring right before Spring Break. They will be monitoring 8 boxes this spring. Six boxes are located on school grounds and the other two boxes are in the outdoor classroom area on the Sigma Nu headquarter grounds. They first checked the boxes on March 19th and were surprised to find early activity. Box B - Outdoor Classroom Sigma Nu grounds There looks to be a Carolina Chickadee in the process of building a nest. The nest measured about 4 inches in height. Box 3 - School grounds by the bus parking lot A small amount of sticks and twigs were found. Box 5 There was a small amount of grass in the bottom of the box. Box B and Box 3 showed activity this week. All other boxes remain unchanged. Box 2   A complete Carolina Chickadee Nest  Two Chickadee Eggs Box 3 There are promising signs of another chickadee nest in Box 3. Box 1 A parent was in the box as we approached. She flew to a nearby powerline and watched our every move.
 Box A provided us with a mystery today. On Monday there was one house wren egg in a completed nest. Today we found more things added to the nest but no egg. Could it be under something? Did a predator get into the nest? 
 Box B remains empty. Box 2 has a completed nest but we have not seen any birds around it. Box 3 has a complete nest, the birds from there have fledged. No new activity has been noted. Box 4 contains an old nest that was invaded by ants and a wasp. We removed the nest and cleaned the box in hopes of clearing the ants.
 Boxes 5 and 6 remain unchanged.
Box A has a few twigs and pine needles but we have not observed any other evidence of birds.
Box B remains empty. Box 1 has a 2.5 inch nest with two eggs that appear to be Tree Swallow eggs.
 Box 2 now has a complete nest.
 Box 3 birds fledged one at a time as we approached the nest box. The fledglings seemed to stay near the box. Box 4 has a new nest being built over an old house sparrow nest. The nest looks a good deal like a house wren nest.  Box 5 remains unchanged.
The dead birds and nest in Box 6 were removed in hopes of attracting another bird. Boxes A and B continue to have little activity. Students are questioning whether predators, noise, or lack of people being around is causing birds to avoid these boxes.
Boxes 1 and 2 have the beginnings of nests in each. We watched a Tree Swallow and BlueJay fighting near box 1.
 Box 3 Birds are growing like crazy.
Boxes 4 and 5 remain unchanged. On Monday of this week, Box 6 had four hatched eggs, one unhatched egg and the cutest little birds ever. The parent remained nearby as we checked the box.
 However, by Thursday it was apparent that the mother had not been returning to the nest the rest of the week as all of the babies were dead.  Box A - The beginnings of a nest were found today. Students are excited to see that a bird has finally discovered this box. Box B on the Sorority grounds remains empty.
Box 1 and Box 2 remain empty. The students have begun to ask thoughtful questions about why this may be. They are determined to learn why the boxes on the front side of the school seem to be more attractive to birds then the boxes at the side and back of the building. Box 3 has a nest that measures 6 inches with four new baby birds today. The students wanted to stay and watch forever but a parent was nearby so we didn't stay so it could get back to the babies.   Box 4 has a complete nest but we have seen no activity in the past week. Box 5 has a complete nest although we have yet to see birds there.  Box 6 has five House Sparrow eggs and a parent near by.
 Box 1 was empty. No nest, no eggs. In box 2 we saw a wasp nest but we killed it and knocked it down so a bird family could live in there. Box 3 had a full nest this week with 3 eggs in it. Last week it had zero eggs and a partially built nest. The nest construction and the designs on the eggs tell us that a house sparrow has moved in. Box 4 has a full house sparrow nest but no birds or eggs are in there. Box 5 has a nest with a height of 10 inches. It is a house sparrow nest. There are no eggs. Box 6 has a house sparrow nest with eggs. On Thursday a parent was sitting on the nest when we approached the box. Boxes A and B located directly behind Central are still empty. A wasp nest was removed from Box A. 
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Central ES
Rockbridge County Schools
Central third graders monitor six boxes in their busy schoolyard. Spring 2019 is Year 5 of monitoring.
