Just now, I went to clean off an old Carolina Wren nest from a nest shelf on my back porch. I left it there all winter thinking they could roost in it (which they did). Good thing I checked it before taking it down, because it had 3 eggs in it! Those eggs were not there 2 weekends ago when I checked as I was cleaning out all my nest boxes. So they're new and my first eggs of the season. I was only going to clean the nest off because a pair of Eastern Phoebes were checking out the back porch and I thought they might want to use the nest shelf, but it looks like they were too late.
Also last night my Blink camera captured ongoing activity in one of my screech-owl boxes. Until now, there has been one owl sleeping there for the past week or so, but last night it had a companion and I could see one owl in the box and heard a second one calling outside the box. The activity was much more animated than usual, and if I had to guess, last night's visitor was a 'new' bird looking at the box for the first time while the 'usual' owl was calling outside it. My interpretation is that our lone roosting male may have had a female checking out his site. Birds of the World tells me, "Nest cavity is chosen from among alternatives in the male's territory by the female, based on past nesting success and food stored there by the male. Male roosts in or near the selected cavity a few days per week before, but rarely during nesting." Spring is definitely in the air in Lansing! If you haven't done it yet, get your nest boxes (if any) cleaned out and ready. Robyn Bailey -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
