Checking in to see what's going on in our bird boxes. Mrs. Bluebird has made only a few trips into the box today, making only minor adjustments. They seem to be done building the nest, she should start laying eggs in a few days.
Our boxes at the Piermont Public Library drew an unwelcome visitor this morning - a brown-headed cowbird. Cowbirds are brood parasites, that is, they lay their eggs in other bird's nests for the other bird to raise. If they lay their eggs in the nest of a bird a small as a chickadee, only the cowbird chick is likely to survive. Let's hope the cowbird saw that no one had a nest in the boxes and moves along.
And, our chickadees popped in again to check the box out yet again.
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We're looking inside a nesting box with the bluebirds in West Newbury, Vermont. The chickadees are in Piermont, New Hampshire.
The cameras are permanently mounted in the boxes and we can watch without disturbing the birds.