Eastern Bluebird photo by Bob Stanowski
Eastern Bluebird Used Nest that Successfully
Fledged 3 Young from a Nest Box in
White Memorial's Mill Field
photo by Dave Rosgen
Tree Swallow photo by Darlene Knox
House Wren photo by Ann Cook
from www.learner.org
The 2011 nesting season was a record-breaking success for Eastern Bluebirds, but a near disaster for Tree Swallows using CT. Bluebird Restoration Project nest boxes on White Memorial Foundation land. Weather was a major player in these results. While Bluebirds either timed their nesting activity right or just got lucky, they managed to avoid the worst of the awful cold, wet weather that plagued Northwest Connecticut for parts of May and June. Many of White Memorial's Bluebirds made their first nesting attempt and successfully fledged young during a nice stretch of weather in May, then delayed making their second nesting attempt until nice weather returned in July. One pair even nested successfully 3 times this year!
Connecticut
A record-high total of 19 pairs of Bluebirds used our nest boxes this year. Of their total of 25 active nests, 23 were successful in fledging a record-high total of 91 young. That made for an excellent success rate of 92% and productivity rate of 3.6 young fledged per active nest. They only suffered 2 nest failures: 1 due to a House Wren destroying a clutch of eggs and the other due to a huge Raccoon eating a clutch of eggs. More on him later. Tree Swallows started their nesting activity slowly in April and May and plugged along trying to nest and bring-off a brood of young through June's horrible weather. Many of them met with failure. Actually, some of our 50 pairs of Tree Swallows suffered from more causes of failures than just the weather this year. A huge Raccoon somehow found a way to climb up the otherwise Raccoon-proof PVC pipe predator guards on 4 nest box poles and get the eggs in the boxes. Non-native House Sparrows caused 2 of the Tree Swallow failures, and a House Wren caused 1 failure. Otherwise, 5 of their record-high 12 failures were caused by the foul weather. Despite this, they still managed to fledge 170 young from 39 successful nests. This gave them a nesting success rate of 76% and a productivity rate of 3.3 young fledged per active nest. House Wrens don't use many of Bluebird boxes because we try to keep them out in the fields, away from edge habitat that Wrens prefer. Still, 5 pairs of House Wrens did nest in them this year. They were 100% successful in their 6 nesting attempts, and fledged a total of 20 young. Two pairs of Black-capped Chickadees attempted to nest in our Bluebird boxes. One didn't get beyond the nest building stage before a Tree Swallow usurped the box. The other pair was successful in fledging 5 young. The overall figures were good, despite the Tree Swallow's contribution of failures. A total of 76 pairs of native birds made a total of 83 active nesting attempts in the nest boxes. Of these, 69 were successful and 14 were failures. They fledged a total of 286 young. That gave them a combined success rate of 83% and productivity rate of 3.4 young fledged per active nest. As for the unwelcome nest box tenants, House Sparrows tried to nest in 6 of the boxes. Despite removing a total of 5 nests, they still managed to fledge a total of 7 young from 3 late nests that slipped past us. Other problem critters included Mice in 3 boxes, Paper Wasps in 6 boxes, and Ants in 4 boxes.
Summary of bluebird box usage
at: The White Memorial Foundation
Towns: Litchfield &
Morris
Year: 2011 Number of boxes:
82
|
SPECIES
|
# of Pairs
|
# of Active
Nests
|
# (%)
Successful
|
# Failed
|
# of Young
Fledged
|
# Fledged per Active
Nest
|
|
Eastern
Bluebird
|
19
|
25
|
23 (92%)
|
2
|
91
|
3.6
|
|
Tree Swallow
|
50
|
51
|
39 (76%)
|
12
|
170
|
3.3
|
|
House Wren
|
5
|
6
|
6 (100%)
|
0
|
20
|
3.3
|
|
Black-cap
Chickadee
|
2
|
1
|
1 (100%)
|
0
|
5
|
5.0
|
|
Tufted
Titmouse
|
0
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
White-br
Nuthatch
|
0
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
TOTALS
|
76
|
83
|
69 (83%)
|
14
|
286
|
3.4
|
Unwelcome Nest Box Tenants
|
SPECIES
|
# of Boxes
Occupied
|
# of Nests
Removed
|
# of Successful
Nests
|
# of Young Fledged
|
|
House
Sparrow
|
6
|
5
|
3
|
7
|
|
White-footed/ Deer
Mice
|
3
|
3
|
-
|
-
|
|
Paper Wasp
|
6
|
12
|
-
|
-
|
|
Dominion
Wasp
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
Ants
|
4
|
8
|
-
|
-
|
|
TOTALS
|
19
|
28
|
3
|
7
|
A record-high total of 19 pairs of Bluebirds used our nest boxes this year. Of their total of 25 active nests, 23 were successful in fledging a record-high total of 91 young. That made for an excellent success rate of 92% and productivity rate of 3.6 young fledged per active nest. They only suffered 2 nest failures: 1 due to a House Wren destroying a clutch of eggs and the other due to a huge Raccoon eating a clutch of eggs. More on him later. Tree Swallows started their nesting activity slowly in April and May and plugged along trying to nest and bring-off a brood of young through June's horrible weather. Many of them met with failure. Actually, some of our 50 pairs of Tree Swallows suffered from more causes of failures than just the weather this year. A huge Raccoon somehow found a way to climb up the otherwise Raccoon-proof PVC pipe predator guards on 4 nest box poles and get the eggs in the boxes. Non-native House Sparrows caused 2 of the Tree Swallow failures, and a House Wren caused 1 failure. Otherwise, 5 of their record-high 12 failures were caused by the foul weather. Despite this, they still managed to fledge 170 young from 39 successful nests. This gave them a nesting success rate of 76% and a productivity rate of 3.3 young fledged per active nest. House Wrens don't use many of Bluebird boxes because we try to keep them out in the fields, away from edge habitat that Wrens prefer. Still, 5 pairs of House Wrens did nest in them this year. They were 100% successful in their 6 nesting attempts, and fledged a total of 20 young. Two pairs of Black-capped Chickadees attempted to nest in our Bluebird boxes. One didn't get beyond the nest building stage before a Tree Swallow usurped the box. The other pair was successful in fledging 5 young. The overall figures were good, despite the Tree Swallow's contribution of failures. A total of 76 pairs of native birds made a total of 83 active nesting attempts in the nest boxes. Of these, 69 were successful and 14 were failures. They fledged a total of 286 young. That gave them a combined success rate of 83% and productivity rate of 3.4 young fledged per active nest. As for the unwelcome nest box tenants, House Sparrows tried to nest in 6 of the boxes. Despite removing a total of 5 nests, they still managed to fledge a total of 7 young from 3 late nests that slipped past us. Other problem critters included Mice in 3 boxes, Paper Wasps in 6 boxes, and Ants in 4 boxes.
1 comment:
Dave
Great report. So happy to hear about excellent next box success at White!
Post a Comment