Last week, we had Tree Swallows building nests and one egg. This week we have four different nests and nine Tree Swallow eggs laid in two of the boxes. We counted four pairs of tree swallows on the nesting count.
Notice the white feather in the nest. For me, the white feather is diagnostic of a Tree Swallow nest. I often use that to tell them apart from Bluebird nests if there aren't any eggs. This nest has the white eggs which are tell tale. Finally, Tree Swallows defend their nests aggressively by swooping close to your head. They eventually get used to me monitoring the boxes once a week, but they are never far from the nest.
Chickadees are doing well. This is a photo of one of the Black-capped Chickadee nests near the house. We have three different nests with a total of 14 babies that are beginning to grow feathers. I am still seeing bluebirds, but don't have any nests started as of this week.
