Natural Lands Trust Preserve Blog

This one's for the Birds at Hildacy Farm - Part II

  Remember that weblog I posted back in March, my run in with the two screech owls sleeping the day away in a wood duck box? Well, the highly anticipated sequel has just come out today; a mother wood duck with her 10 newly born ducklings.

  Back in March, I installed a wood duck box along Crum Creek at Hildacy Farm. A site that was secluded enough for wood ducks to nest and a site that I had easy access to monitor (As seen above - view from the wood duck box). By April 18, I had my first record of a wood duck using the nest box, but no eggs. Not wanting to scare the pair away, I waited two weeks to check the nest again. Here is a picture of the nest taken on April 29.

  I monitored the woodie's nest again on May 6. As I opened the clean out hatch, out flew the mother woodie squealing at me as she traveled down stream. Again, the nest had 10 eggs getting warmed up to be hatched. All the eggs hatch in the same day and the hen will keep her brood in the nest over night. By the time morning comes, the hen will fly out of the nest to the water below where she will call out softly. One by one, the day old ducklings will take the leap of faith (about 14 ft. in this case) from the nesting box. The hen will then lead them along the creek to safety.

   I was really hoping to see this all happen, but I was a day late. I did however get a pictures of the ducklings just starting to crack out of their eggs. This picture was taken on May 13. I wanted to stick around to watch them hatch, but I knew this was not the time nor place for me to be. Here is a picture of the nest taken on May 15. All that remains are some downy feathers and a few egg shells.... for now. If you would like to learn more about these beautiful ducks, click here. 

This one's for the Birds

What an exciting find! Hi my name is Joe Vinton, I am the Preserve Manager at Hildacy Farm. I manage five nature preserves for Natural Lands Trust and this web blog comes from our Summerhill Preserve in Chester County. On March 6, I was along Crum Creek checking and cleaning out three wood duck boxes for the upcoming nesting season. Wood ducks are cavity nesters and will usually nest in cavities of trees, but in this case, we constructed nesting boxes (32x10x17) out of lumber to provide these ducks with a safe place to hatch their brood. Click here if you would like to read more on wood ducks.

The first nesting box I opened presented me with a startling surprise, out flew an eastern screech owl! After gaining my composure, I went back to cleaning the nest box and found another owl huddled in the corner. With a little persuasion, I was able to stir the owl out of the box. This owl made the same move as the previous one, flew out of the nest box and flew into another nest box just up stream. Knowing that both owls where in the box upstream, I went back to get my camera. It was a very exciting discovery and I hope you all enjoy the pictures. Click here if you would like to learn more about eastern screech owls. 

                                                                        

Hildacy: Bluebird Webcam!

A pair of Eastern Bluebirds have moved into a nest box at our Hildacy Farm Preserve. While we're always excited about bluebirds (we generally get about 200 fledglings out of our nest boxes each year), we are particularly excited about this pair because they've selected the nest box with a web cam in it!

We installed the webcam last spring, but a pair of Tree Swallows nested in the box instead of bluebirds, raising three young. (Tree Swallows are one of Eastern Bluebirds' main competitors for nesting space.

The pair of bluebirds started moving in last week, and they've already built their nest, although they have yet to lay any eggs. You can check in on them and watch them live throughout the spring by clicking here.