Bluebird Nest-box Monitoring

This summer was a first for me; Mom, Dad, and I volunteered as Wildlife Monitors for the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Bluebird Nest Box Monitoring Program!  Once every week or so, after breakfast, we would head out to the beautiful Bald Mountain and set off through the trees to check on the bird boxes and record observations.

On our first visit to Bald Mountain, Bob, an experienced bird box monitor, showed us where our boxes were located, explained the safety rules, and demonstrated how to open the boxes and take pictures.  We also discussed repairs, and the very next day, my family and I drove out with wood, screw drivers, lots of sandpaper, and set to work.  I found repairing the boxes very satisfying, especially looking at the finished product.  A little house all spruced up with new wood and shiny screws.

Birdbox Repairs ***

During our repairs, we encountered a surprise.  A pair of Mountain Chickadees were already beginning to build a nest! The Chickadees were very curious about our repairs, and they did not stop nest building even though we were there.  They would watch us quizzically for a few minutes, and then whenever we stepped back, they would dive into the box with a wad of nesting material. 

Not too long after we finished the repairs, our boxes started filling up with Mountain Chickadee, Western Bluebird, and Violet Green Swallow nests.  The variety in the shapes and materials of the nests was amazing!  My favorite was a Violet Green Swallow’s; the egg cup was tucked in one corner, lined with iridescent black feathers, and one larger black feather was stuck into the nest so it hung over the eggs like a canopy. I loved watching the nests being built, but the eggs were still more exciting.  Our minds were blown when, on our fifth visit (5/18/2019), we found our first eggs; three Western Bluebird and seven Mountain Chickadee.  Over the following weeks, we observed 19 Western Bluebird, 9 Violet Green Swallow, and 14 Mountain Chickadee eggs.  The Bluebird eggs were the same shade of blue as the Colorado sky….

Violet Green Swallow eggs are like little peaches

Beautiful Bluebird Eggs

After eggs were confirmed in a nest box, we would calculate an approximate hatch date.  Waiting for the babies to hatch was very exciting and I would approach the box with great anticipation as the hatch date got closer. I always took photos of the nestlings so I could count them without staying at the box too long, and it is amazing to look at the development over time.  They grow so fast!  Turning from eggs to fluffy versions of their parents in under thirty days.

Bluebird chicks at ~5 days old

After the nestlings were twelve days old, we did not open the boxes.  We did not want the nestlings getting frightened and fledging before they were ready.  Instead, we would observe the boxes from a distance to watch for signs of adult feeding behavior and listen for begging calls from the nestlings. The boxes were always silent until the parents brought food, and when they did, we would hear an explosion of tiny voices peeping inside.

Violet Green Swallow Feeding Babies

Western Bluebird Feeding Babies

I mean, like a lot of poop.

I was always a little nervous opening a box after the fledging date.  I was scared we might find a dead nestling or something to indicate that they hadn’t survived to fledge.  This year we were lucky, we didn’t find anything like that.  Although, we did find poop.  Lots of poop.  Seriously, I did not expect to find so much poop. One box had so much poop plastered to the sides that the door got stuck when I tried to open it!  This is definitely the grossest part of monitoring.

In total this year, we had 9 nest attempts in our 7 boxes.  Of the 42 eggs laid, 4 did not hatch.  We were never present to witness the fledging firsthand, but because there were no additional signs of threats to the nestlings, we believe that 14 Mountain Chickadee, 15 Western Bluebird, and 9 Violet Green Swallow nestlings successfully fledged!

Being a bird box monitor has been a very enjoyable and educational experience.  Not only has it allowed me to learn more about bird behaviors and feel more at home in the avian world, but it has brought me to a beautiful place every week and let me experience many amazing things.  Strolling through the sweet-scented pines, I was serenaded by a million cicadas.  Sitting by a bird box, a beautiful hummingbird caught my eye as she sipped nectar from the firework-like blossoms of a thistle.  When I reached the crest of the mountain, I found myself gazing out across a great range of peaks cloaked in evergreen trees and at my feet Ball Cactus blossoms bloomed.  Participating in this project brought me closer to the birds and the natural world as whole, and I hope my participation contributed to Bluebird, and songbird, conservation.

This post is dedicated to the 38 fledglings who spent the first days of their lives in a nest box at Bald Mountain.

Mountain Chickadee Babies ~10 days

To view additional photos of the nestlings and other cool things we saw at Bald Mountain, please check out my Flickr album.

Image Credits: Eva Getman, *** Hope Getman

Celestial Performances!

December 23, 2018: Sunrise from Sunrise Amphitheater

7:09 am. eleven minutes till sunrise

7:19 am, one minute till sunrise 

7:21 am, one minute after the sun's first ray 

December 23, 2018: Moonset from Artist's Point

7:38 am

January 20, 2019: Blood Moon

9:30 pm.
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9:56 pm.
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9:57 pm.
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"January Nature Almanac: By Dawn's Early Light" by Steve Jones and Ruth Carol Cushman: As it happens, the head of our Boulder Audubon Teen Naturalists, Steve Jones, co-authored an article in our local newspaper about some of the amazing things that have happened in the sky this January.

Image Credits: Eva Getman, ** Dan Getman

Neighborhood Nestlings Part 4

Great Horned Owlets

The babies have her eyes!

You can't imagine how excited I was when I learned there was a Great Horned Owl nest with owlets near our house.  We were told it was in a sandstone cliff at a road cut so the first chance we got, we drove out to see them.  To protect the birds we stayed across the road from them, which made them hard to spot at first.  From there, it looked like this: cliff, cliff, cliff colored bird holding still, cliff... But once I zoomed in with my camera, I could see them just fine.  It was amazingly cute to watch the little nestlings hunker down out of the wind and snuggle up to their mom.

Even though it was wonderful to see a Great Horned Owl nest, there was a problem.  This nest site has several issues because it is so close to a road.  The first is that being this easy to see means some people will want to get closer.  This is BAD, it will stress the birds out to no end.  Staying a safe distance protects the birds and gets just as good photos, as you can see above. The other problem is when the nestlings leave the nest it will be dangerous.  They will still be learning to fly and being around that many cars can prove a hazard.  This summer orange boundaries were put around the area to keep people and cars from getting right under the nest.  Also, an Audubon member has requested to have the cavity filled before 2019's nesting season so that the owls will find somewhere safer to nest.

Unknown Ducklings

There were over 15 of these ducklings!

One day, my Mom, Dad, and I were hiking in the mountains when we saw almost twenty of these little ducklings swimming in the middle of a lake!  They were so cute.  We spent a good quarter hour watching them.  Every now and then one of the ducklings would raise its chest up, spread its tiny wings, and speed across the water.  I don't know how they managed it, but they would go so fast they would leave a stream of bubbles behind them and it looked like they were walking on water! I think they might have been practicing taking flight from the lake, learning how to get up enough speed to get into the air, perhaps.  I bet that takes a lot of trial and error ;)  Who knows, though, they may have just been doing it because it was fun!

The little ducks were also divers.  They would go head-first into the water and come out in a completely different spot!  One minute you would be looking at a fluffy duckling and the next, nothing but ripples.  The little nuisances kept doing it right as I was about to get a photo!

We weren't able to identify what kind of ducklings these little guys were because we don't know duckling markings well enough and the light was too poor to allow us to identify the mother.

Lesser Goldfinch Nestlings

August 2, 2018: Mother goldfinch on the nest.

My Mom (who is amazing) found this nest quite by accident.  She was tracking another bird through binoculars, and unexpectedly,  found herself looking at a mother goldfinch on a nest!  It was so well hidden that I felt like I was looking at a little secret tucked up in the tree.  The nest was a lovely little cup set right at the fork in a small branch.  It had a leaf attached to the side which made it look all the more like a part of the tree. Watching the mother goldfinch on the nest was my favorite part of finding it.  I thought she looked just like a little sunbeam hidden under the leaves.

We came to see the goldfinch family almost every day, and we got to watch the nestlings being fed.  The father goldfinch would come to the nest and pass the food he had brought to the mother.  She would then feed it to their babies.  She always knew the father was coming before we did; she would start to sing and shuffle her wings.  A few seconds later, he would land on the rim of the nest.

August 8, 2018: Mama goldfinch feeding her nestlings.

August 13, 2018: The babies are growing bigger!

After about a week, the mother goldfinch was no longer constantly on the nest.  My guess is that the nestlings were strong enough by then to keep warm on their own.  Now, both the mother and father were able to bring food for the growing babies. Even though she was able to spend more time off the nest, we came down one day after a rainstorm and found the mother goldfinch perched on the nest, sheltering the babies from the dampness.

By about two weeks old,  the nestlings almost had full plumage. They looked as big as their parents, and quite literally, had out grown the nest.  It was flattened and was now more of a platform; the nestlings were practically spilling out!

August 20, 2018: Two days later, the nestlings fledged!

Image Credits: Eva Getman