Nest Box Observations

Nest box 1 has new tenants looking at it. They are building a nest so hopefully a bluebird family will be raised successfully this time.

Nestbox 5 still has babies. The parents are staying close by. I didn't open the box today because the babies are older than 12 days. There age causes them to be a risk for an early first flight if the box is opened. They are not really old enough to survive outside the box yet.

We found a baby cardinal on Friday. It had either fallen or flown from its nest. It did not survive. How sad!

Until next time....

Sharon

treasures2yourdoor

Roofing Specialists

Another Baby Blue Bird

Nest box 5 has another baby. When Amanda and I approached the box the mother flew out. She flew up into the tree close to the nest box and watched patiently while we checked the box and photographed her chicks. Before we opened the nest box we could here the babies cheeping. When we opened it, they were very quiet and lay very still. The birds are getting gray tufts on them. They are about 6 or 7 days old now. There are still four eggs. I don't think they are going to hatch.


Sharon

treasures2yourdoor

Roofing Specialists

TAMING OF THE DUCKWEED

Duckweed is a very small floating plant. It consists of a single leaf with a single root attached. It spends its life floating in ponds that are rich in nutrients. It multiplies like crazy and if left alone, can grow to two or three inches deep. At least that is how deep we have found in on our small pond.

In past years, we have spent many hours removing this nuisance weed. Howard sets up a pump with and intake hose and a discharge hose. Someone mans the intake hose in pond and keeps duckweed being sucked into it. The discharge hose is laid high on the bank. The water and duckweed shoots out of it. The grass traps the duckweed and most of the water runs back into the pond. We call this process "vacuuming the pond." I jokingly say, "It is really bad when you spend more time vacuuming your pond than you do your house." But in the growing season that is what happens.

This year we are going to try controlling the duckweed with chemicals. We purchase Sonar AS last year, but conditions were never right for putting it in the pond. We spent several hours on Monday, April 7 and Tuesday, April 8 pumping duckweed out of the pond. We removed several hundred pounds of the stuff. We at least have reduced it to a thin layer across the surface of the pond. Wednesday, April 9, Howard measured the pond to be sure that we used an accurate amount of Sonar to control the duckweed. Right now the pond is approximately 42' X 150' and averages a depth of 3'. It only took 5 oz. of the Sonar.

Howard dispensed the Sonar. Now we just have to wait for it to do its work. It can take up to 30 days to kill the duckweed. We will see if it was worth the $200 investment for a pint of the chemical.

Sharon

treasures2yourdoor

Roofing Specialists

Newly Hatched Blue Bird

Nest box 5 seems to the successful one for this season. When I checked the nest boxes on April 6, there was a baby blue bird that appeared to be one or two days old. There were five more eggs in the nest. It would be great if all of them hatched and the babies survived.

Whenever I check box 5 the parents fly up into a nearby tree and keep watch. Hopefully I will be able to get a good picture of them this year. They do not seem to understand about how lighting and glare affects a picture. The silouettes of them in the tree do not give too much detail.

Nest box 1 appears to have been abandoned. I have not seen any activities around it. There are three eggs, but I think it is way past the incubation period for them. They were in the nest when I checked it on March 14. The maximum incubation time is 15 days. When I check the nest next time, I will remove the nest and eggs and maybe someone else will decide to occupy the box.

Predator Control

Have you ever thought of those little bitty, stinging ants as predators? Well they are. You know how much the sting of a fire ant hurts on a human, but can you imagine being a small, featherless, baby bird and being stung by one. Fire ants are one of the creatures that can dimish the number of song birds in an area. They have an uncanny way of sniffing out a new nest of newly hatched songbirds and invading.

The weather was so crazy last year that we didn't get the ants poisoned on the whole place. On March 22, Howard pulled a spreader behind the four wheeler and put out fire ant bait on the whole property. A week later there were still some fire ant mounds. Spot application was the next order of control. Hopefully this year no baby birds will be lost a fire ant!