From Ms. Vicki, Bird Club Volunteer Monitor:
On Tuesday, May 12, Central 3rd grade students finally saw some action in their nest boxes. Box #3 had a tree swallow sitting on 5 eggs. She flew from the nest when we opened the box and continued flying and swooping around us as we viewed the eggs and checked the temperatures. Box #6 also had a tree swallow sitting on 3 eggs. She flew from her nest, but was not nearly as agitated as the bird in Box #3; she is probably not finished laying her eggs yet. The tree swallow nests are beautiful with their big white and black feathers, and the eggs are so tiny!
Boxes #1 and 4 both had house sparrows building nests in the boxes. Their nests are not as pretty as the swallows' and definitely messier. Although house sparrows are an invasive species and should not be taking up space in our nest boxes, we will leave them there for a while so we can compare nests and eggs, since so many of our boxes are empty. We also looked at a hummingbird nest which had blown out of a tree. It was tiny and so soft inside!
Box # 5 has a history of wasps trying to build nests in it, but now it has an invasion of ants! Nesting birds do not seem to mind ants (perhaps they eat them?), so we will just leave them alone for now, hoping a bird moves in soon--but not another house sparrow!
On Tuesday, May 12, Central 3rd grade students finally saw some action in their nest boxes. Box #3 had a tree swallow sitting on 5 eggs. She flew from the nest when we opened the box and continued flying and swooping around us as we viewed the eggs and checked the temperatures. Box #6 also had a tree swallow sitting on 3 eggs. She flew from her nest, but was not nearly as agitated as the bird in Box #3; she is probably not finished laying her eggs yet. The tree swallow nests are beautiful with their big white and black feathers, and the eggs are so tiny!
Boxes #1 and 4 both had house sparrows building nests in the boxes. Their nests are not as pretty as the swallows' and definitely messier. Although house sparrows are an invasive species and should not be taking up space in our nest boxes, we will leave them there for a while so we can compare nests and eggs, since so many of our boxes are empty. We also looked at a hummingbird nest which had blown out of a tree. It was tiny and so soft inside!
Box # 5 has a history of wasps trying to build nests in it, but now it has an invasion of ants! Nesting birds do not seem to mind ants (perhaps they eat them?), so we will just leave them alone for now, hoping a bird moves in soon--but not another house sparrow!