Ranger Pete (The Birdman): 
Today's monitoring was very fun and sad as we got to see lots of bird behavior including hatchlings begging for food, parents shuttling food to Box 4, and two more boxes with eggs in them. The sad part is that we only have one week of monitoring left in the school year before summer break for the students. 

Our 5 Bluebird hatchlings fledged from Box 1 between our monitoring on Wednesday last week and Friday the same week. The parents and young have not been seen in the area since. Already a male House Sparrow has apparently laid claim to the empty box as he was repeatedly seen sitting on the box today. House Sparrows and Starlings are both from Europe and are considered invasive non-native species that compete with our native birds for food and nesting space. 

If the House Sparrow begins to nest in Box 1, all nest materials will be consistently removed to prevent the completion of its life cycle as it is a obnoxious non-native species. This will make room for other native species to utilize box 1 if they choose to. 

The Carpenter Bees in box 2 have become increasingly aggressive now coming out of the box with vigorous buzzing whenever the box is disturbed. For safety reasons, this box will no longer be monitored with the students. I will attempt to obtain images whenever possible. There are multiple bees in this box now with as many as 5 bees observed today. 

Here is a visual representation of what we have observed so far along the LDMS Nest Box Trail as of June 1, 2015. 

Ranger Pete: Another exciting week for monitoring with hatchling Bluebirds observed with only a few days left before they fledge. Five chicks were observed on Wednesday May 27 in Box 1.

Nesting activity has really picked up with several boxes with eggs to hatch in the next few days. Box 4 has five Tree Swallow eggs, Box 5 has five House Wren eggs, and Box 6 three Tree Swallow Eggs. The students have already gotten to see two complete nesting cycles from an Eastern Bluebird and an American Robin this semester. 

Ranger Pete's Report: 
Another exciting week of nest box monitoring has come and gone. Our baby Bluebirds are doing well and growing fast. The female Bluebird can be often seen shuttling food to her chicks from the drop off/pick up loop when waiting in line. 

Our American Robin nest near box 5 has neared fledgling stage as the chicks have gotten too big for their nest and are climbing around the bush still being fed by both attending parents. 












It was a bit unnerving to have Tree Swallows diving at me while checking on them in Box 4 and also good to see the attention the male gives to "protecting" the nest too. 

Mrs. Rowsey's Report:
Box 1: We saw baby bluebirds.  They look gray right now.  They were not fuzzy like we imagined they would be. They have not opened their eyes yet.

Box 4:  We saw 5 eggs that have not hatched yet.  We saw the dad guarding the eggs.  Then we saw mom go into the box.  We imagine that she is trying to keep the eggs warm.  We also noticed lots of white feathers in the nest.  The temperatures were over 100 degrees in the box.  Wow!!


Mrs. Laubscher's Class Report:
Box #1 – We saw eastern bluebird hatchlings.  They were sleeping in the nest and there were four or five baby birds.  We could see their little beaks, little wings and their tiny faces.

Box #2 – We saw the chickadee nest and then blue bird nest, but the carpenter bees have taken over the box with their own nest and there were about four bees in the box.  One looked like a baby bee.

Box #4 – There was a mother tree swallow in her nest and she decided to come out so that we could look.  There were five pink eggs about the size of jelly beans.  The male tree swallow almost attacked Ranger Pete because he was afraid that we were disturbing his nest.  He was watching from the power line, but “dive bombed” us.

Box #5 – In that nest we saw that a house wren build a nest with a little hole in the middle.  There was a small brown egg in the nest.  Ranger Pete said that the egg had just been laid 3 or 4 hours before because there was only one egg in the nest.

Mrs. Squire's Class Report:
Box 4 had 5 tree swallow eggs.  They looked like jelly beans.  Box 6 had a tree swallow beginning to build a nest.

Mrs. Squire's Class Report:
Box 1 had 5 eggs and one egg was hatching as we opened the box.  Wow!!!! It was pink and naked and the egg had a circular cut that went all the way around.  It was in two halves.

Mrs. Laubscher's Class Report:

Box #2 – Same two nests (chickadee and eastern blue bird) along with a carpenter bee.

Box #5 – We found a nest that was made of sticks, but did not look done. 

We also saw a robin nest in a bush that was near box 5 and that was really cool because there were five babies.

This week Ranger Pete showed us box #4 where we saw a tree swallow nest with a pinkish/white egg and a complete nest made of feathers.  There was a tree swallow staring at us while we looked at the nest. 

Ranger Pete's Report: Today's monitoring was one of the most exciting days to date. Mrs Rowsey's class checked Box #1 around 1:15 PM to find 5 Eastern Bluebird eggs under the watchful eye of the female who flew around the area while we were gathering our nest box observations. 

Mrs Squire's class returned to take a quick peek at the Bluebird nest with its eggs only to discover the first hatchling working itself free from the egg shell at about 2:15 PM.

Box 4 revealed the first Tree Swallow egg under the watchful eyes of the male perched on a nearby powerline.  

The Lylburn Downing Middle School Nest Box Trail now has a total of 5 species in 4 nest boxes: 

• Box 1: Eastern Bluebirds
  
• Box 2: Eastern Bluebird nest taken over by Carolina Chickadees in turn evicted by a Carpenter Bee. 
  
• Box 3: Empty
  
• Box 4: Tree Swallows
  
• Box 5: House Wrens
  
• Behind Box 5 in a bush: American Robins
  
• Box 6: Empty
  

Download the past week's observation photo log below. 

Ranger Pete: Students today monitoring observed some wonderful bird interactions at many of the nest boxes on campus. Box 1 revealed 5 Eastern Bluebird eggs and a fight between the male Bluebird and a Chickadee. 

Mrs. Laubscher's class:
In box #2 there were two nests (blue bird and chickadee), but none of the birds were in there because carpenter bees had taken over.  Ranger Pete said that he saw the blue bird and the chickadee fighting over another nesting box.  

In box #5 we saw the beginning of a house wren nest, but in a tree near it we saw another nest with three baby birds that had just hatched and one egg that was left to hatch.  They were robin babies and egg.  The mom was making a nervous/angry call near the nest because she saw us looking at it.  We also saw a crow flying around looking for food and it may have been looking at the baby birds.   

Mrs. Squire's Class:
Robin’s eggs in a nest in a tree
Nothing in our boxes
Saw a bluebird and chickadee nest in another class’s box

Mrs. Laubscher's Class:
In box #2 the chickadee nest took over (the blue bird nest) and Ranger Pete said that there were not feathers, but fur (he had seen a chickadee with a beak full of fur from a dog).  

In box #5 we observed the start of some type of a nest.  We thought that it might be a house wren nest. We saw a robin’s nest in a tree with blue eggs, near box #5, but not in a nesting box. 

Mrs. Squires Class:
Nothing in our boxes.
A carpenter bee had taken over the chickadee nest in box 2

Mrs. Laubscher's Class:
In box #2 a chickadee nest and a blue bird nest were both on top of each other.  There was also a carpenter bee in the box and there were feathers observed in that box too.  

In box #5 there was only a wasp.

Mrs. Squire's Class:
Nothing in our boxes.
A chickadee nest on top of a blue bird nest in box 2.

Mrs. Laubscher's Class: 
Over the next couple months, we will be visiting the boxes in small groups (once a week).  Monday was our first visit.  We checked two of the boxes and were lucky enough to see TWO nests in one.  There was a blue bird nest with a chickadee nest on top.  No birds were in it.  We are not sure which birds will be able to continue living in that nesting box.  We had a great time and can’t wait for our next visit!

Today we started a Waddell spring tradition – bird watching!  Third grade is lucky to have a partnership with Boxerwood Nature Center and they have placed six nesting boxes around the school.  Building on the pilot program of last year, “Birds for Thirds” engages two schools (Waddell and Central) in weekly monitoring of new, school-cited blue bird trails. Both trails were funded by a grant Boxerwood pursued from the Virginia Ornithological Society. The purpose of the project is to engage students in authentic field-based investigations while also nurturing in them a passion for wild birds and their conservation.

Boxerwood is overseeing the project in coordination with third grade teachers, the grantors, and volunteers from the Rockbridge Bird Club and Rockbridge Master Naturalists. At Waddell, the weekly leader is Pete Hamel, who is also District Interpretive Ranger for the Blue Ridge Parkway. This season Boxerwood is also piloting live birdcams on three middle school campuses for similar purposes (funded by the Virginia Bluebird Society) We are still in the ramping up stage with the birdcams, but expect at least two to be operational by next week. We’ll have links to share to those webcams at that time as well as link to a Nest Box website created to house information about all these local projects: stay tuned!