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!