Last Weekend's Project for the Birds Yields Immediate Results and Much Anticipation!

        Late last Spring, Carl and I contracted with a dock builder to have our collapsing creekside retaining wall rebuilt.  This meant that all of the electrical conduit buried in the yard that led to the duck box had to be dug up so that the work could proceed.  Yes, for those of you who did not know, we had a video camera in our duck box so that we could track the laying of eggs, the hatching of chicks and their departure from the nest.  You can see pictures from the 2011 hatching in this blog post.  That year, we were out of town at a bird club meeting but we were able to log in to our server to watch the children bounce around the box before they left the next morning. You can see the video of the whole story in this later post.  Our regular readers also know that we have a bluebird box with a camera feed, too.  Once our bluebirds were done nesting last summer, a squirrel decided that she might fit rather cozily in the box if only she could get in.  So she chewed up the door destroying it completely.

Squirrel wants a nest box, too! -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- July 9, 2013

 

Her first attempt occurred in 2012 until she decided to nest in the duck box!  -- Parc Perlière -- Charleston, SC -- November 3, 2012

This was not her first attempt.  She had destroyed a door in the Fall of 2012 before deciding that she had more room in the duck box.  There, she raised a family!  Below you can see a couple of her children poking their heads out of the duck box.

Young squirrels ready to leave the nest box -- Parc Perlière -- Charleston, SC -- November 2, 2012

 
Well we are fairly tired of hosting the squirrels as they are fairly bad tenants.  So after the birds'  nesting season was over,  Carl responded last summer by removing the door to the bluebird box and by removing the wood duck box from its post.  Seriously, the squirrels do not need our help reproducing!  We host an excessive number in our yard.

           This month, with the new nesting season fast approaching, I urged Carl to set up the bird boxes again.  We hope that nesting birds will defend the nest box from the squirrels as they have done in the past. And so Carl spent this past weekend making a new door for the bluebird box, running new electrical conduit underground out to the duck box, re-installing the duck box and the cameras and programming the video monitoring software.  Within minutes of the door installation, a Carolina Chickadee was spotted checking out the bluebird box!  Carl finished the whole project late Sunday.  And the very next day, when Carl checked the software, we found 2 events had been recorded -- one for each box!  A Carolina Wren had investigated the bluebird box!  Though not a great photo, we were excited to know that the birds are showing an interest.  Both Carolina Chickadees and Eastern Bluebirds have nested in this box,  and one winter, a female Downy Woodpecker used it as her nightly roost but she never nested in the box.  And neither has a Carolina Wren.   So it would be fun to watch a Carolina Wren this time!  Who knows ... time will tell who our new tenants will be!

Carolina Wren checks out the birdbox! -- Parc Perlière -- Charleston, SC -- February 10, 2014

Monday, the Wood Duck box had a visitor, also!  And it was not furry and it did not have 4 legs!  Hooray!  I think this girl was a watching and awaiting!

Wood Duck's first visit to newly re-installed box! -- Parc Perlière -- February 10, 2014

           This was quite a nice immediate reward for a long weekend project!  Now, we are impatiently waiting for our birds to make up their minds that they are ready to make babies.  We look forward to sharing with you images and videos on the blog.  Helping to provide suitable habitat for the wildlife in our yard is quite important to us.  It is icing on the cake to have an intimate look into this phase of their lives -- watching them take care of their eggs and babies without disturbing them!  Stay tuned -- there will be more nest box stories photos and videos to come!

The Ice Man Cameth -- January 29--30! Birding out the Window & Birding on the Net Continued

Bijou watches Red-winged Blackbirds and Chipping Sparrows on the iced over deck -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

           The Ice Man came to Charleston!  Whooey!  That is the longest cold spell that I can remember -- about 48 hours of below freezing temperatures here in the semi-tropical south!  With the weather forecasts, we had hoped for snow but the white stuff that came down was the more dangerous ice,  I stayed inside except to fill bird feeders and then essentially skated across the deck to do that.  Even before the ice came down early Wednesday, the birds knew what was coming and were feeding madly at our feeders when I returned home from work Tuesday.  It was non-stop action out our windows Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and Thursday and provided us with great window birding moments. 

          But before I share more window birding pictures, let me share with you a couple of "birding on the net" links that I discovered on my 2 day hiatus from my normal work week.  First, I recommend that everyone check out Dorian Anderson's fascinating ongoing Big Year by Bike adventure on his blog,  Biking for Birds.  He wanted to do an eco-friendly Big Year and the bike, his feet, and from time to time, a kayak when available, will be his only means of transportation.  In the process, he hopes to raise significant funds for birds and conservation.  All donations go directly to the organizations that he has slated as the beneficiaries of this huge endeavor.  Amazingly, he has just completed his first month of biking through snow in sub-freezing temps throughout the northeast and has recorded 127 species thus far.  My guess is that he will enter North Carolina today.  You may have seen some posts about him, such as this one from January 30, on the Carolina Bird Listserv.  What I  found to be among the most interesting parts of his blog (besides the daily post!) are his "Brief Bio" and "Why" pages.  Dorian is an accomplished geneticist who left his post-doctoral work in Boston to follow his life-long passion for birds for a year and to raise money for conservation!  And remember,  in his attempt to do this Big Year, his carbon foot print will be next to zero!  Wow!  You rock, Dorian!  So that I do not miss out on any of his adventure, I have put a link in my blog list to the right.  If you visit his page, you can also sign up for e-mail alerts every time he posts. 

       Here's one more birding link for you as we slowly progress out of this extra cold winter season towards a balmier Spring.  On Wednesday,  as I alternated from computer screen to window birding and back, I received this Bird Cams eNews Flash from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology!  We can now watch live a Laysan Albatross chick (hatched January 27) and his parents on the nest in tropical Hawaii!  Throughout this month, when we come home in the dark from work, we can tune into a little more sunshine and a bit of Spring, as we watch this chick grow up.  Cornell Lab of Ornithology makes it possible to follow multiple species on their nests as they operate several cams or help to sponsor several cams throughout the country.  The best place to tune in to all the different bird cams throughout the Spring months is through this link on their All About Birds -- Bird Cams page.  My regular readers will perhaps remember the PMP blog post about Big Red and her mate, Ezra -- two Red-tailed Hawks -- who nest over the athletic fields at Cornell University.  I understand that they have begun refurbishing their nest again this year!  So when we cannot get outside, we can still enjoy nature LIVE! 

        So enough about birding on the net -- I promised photos from my birding out the windows after the ice storm.  And here they are!

Young male Baltimore Oriole -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

This young male Baltimore Oriole needs a teeter totter buddy! -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

            We have three Baltimore Orioles hanging out in our yard these days and one female Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  The last I saw of our hummer was Tuesday morning.  I worried that she had perished during those harsh temperatures.  But she was back at the feeder yesterday afternoon.  John Fussell of Morehead City, NC reported the same experience with his male Ruby-throated hummer in this post to the Carolina Bird Listserv.  Could our hummers have entered some extended state of torpor to survive the cold? 

Common Grackle -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Common Grackle -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Red-winged Blackbirds -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

The always adorable Chipping Sparrow -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Again, simply adorable! -- Chipping Sparrow -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Red-winged Blackbird -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

A sweet, sad-faced Pine Warbler -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Another pose for the sweet, sad-faced Pine Warbler -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Red-bellied Woodpecker -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

A female Downy Woodpecker -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

We can never tire of watching those Chippies! -- Chipping Sparrows -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Chipping Sparrow  -- waiting for a turn at the feeder -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

Bijou agrees!  Those bold Chippies are great! -- Parc Perlière -- James Island, Charleston, SC -- January 29, 2014

           Now that the temperatures have warmed back to normal, the feeding frenzy has ended.  Also, I can now go do some birding outdoors and dispell this cabin fever!  Time to find some of those winter specialties before warmer temperatures and longer days pull them northwards!  It is good to know though that we when cannot get outdoors, we have window birding and internet birding to tide us over!