Bumblebee Or Egg? | Week 5

Hello birders!
This past week, I was finally able to check nest boxes. Great news! I found that around half of the boxes were occupied, which is really good for this early in the season. Around 3 of the boxes had eggs, which is impressive. Below, I will insert a screenshot of how I like to compile my data in a spreadsheet.

Introduction
As you can see in the photos below, this is what McClellan Trail looks like along with a photo of the apparatus and how we use it to retrieve nest boxes from trees.

Predictions
While we still don’t know the species of most of the nesting birds, we can predict the species by analyzing what material they use to nest. For example, chickadees prefer bark and fur while bluebirds like using straw; the resident wren likes to use twigs. Also, this week, I put my fingers inside a nest to feel for eggs and found myself touching a bumblebee instead, so this is a reminder to myself that I have to be very careful!

Additionally, I have one more exciting photo of a nest which I am going to focus on for the remainder of this week’s blog. This nest is a great example of how I, as a monitor, can make inferences about a nest and the things that I should look for when opening a box.

As you can see, the box is mainly consisted of redwood bark and there are six eggs in the nest. Immediately, my instincts tell me that this is a chickadee nest. While I do not have confirmation that a chickadee is nesting here, I am 99% sure that that’s the case. Because collecting data is objective and I can’t let hunches determine how I record observations, the species of this nesting bird is still a big question mark.

Hopefully next week we have more eggs and see you soon!