Survival of the Fittest

After this week’s work on the refuge, one famous line keeps popping into my head; survival of the fittest. Since my last blog a lot has happened to the different birds that call this place home. There have been many ups and downs and I believe that as the season progresses and we get deeper into the warmer weather life on the refuge will see big changes.

First of all, the swallows have been making their presence on the refuge known and there seems to be more and more of them. Since last week, a new pair has moved into one of the boxes making it a total of three breeding pairs of swallows. So far in my original swallow nest the clutch has increased from one egg to five and if fertile the chicks should be hatching quite soon. As for the second nest, I had found one egg in it earlier in the week but I believe it was either pushed out of the box or perhaps a predator managed to get it since it is no longer in there. However, the parents are still very protective over the box and I believe they should begin laying eggs very soon. For my newest swallow addition there was a slight mishap and in order to retrieve a piece of equipment the nest had to be temporarily removed, but when leaving today, I saw that both of them were working on the rebuilding process.

Our other bird species that took refuge in the boxes are house wrens. With the help of my cell phone and a pretty cool mirror I was finally able to see inside the boxes and was able to see seven eggs in one nest and six in another. These eggs appear to be red and white blotched and similar in size to the swallows. Since the discovery of the eggs, both nests seemed to be doing fairly well except for the fact that one had a slight ant problem, which I’m hoping will resolve itself.

Overall, I am very hopeful that these nests will be successful and if all goes well I will be reporting chicks in the next blog. I am also hoping that with the warmer whether we may be able to see some Eastern bluebirds and that they may set up a nest in one of the boxes!