I made my first inspection of our 19 nesting boxes on April 5. The bluebirds have been busy, with 8 nests started, 5 of those nests with the cup formed, and one of those had 2 eggs already. All of those nests are made of dry pine needles. Two of them are only about 1” deep pine needles, laid on top of what must be a winter’s accumulation of 1” or more of bird feces…yuck! I had cleaned out all the boxes in late fall, so all that poop has to have been deposited this winter. Not a very appealing situation to me, but I guess the bluebirds don’t care.
The box that had a flying squirrel nest in it last year has a nest built of the same soft, flat, plant material as last year, so I suspect we have the flying squirrel there again. I have yet to figure out just what that material is, or where the squirrel is getting it.
Cynthia Burkhart
Ritchie County
Sent from my iPad
