Summaries of each year's nesting studies are/will be available here:
2009 - As of 26 Apr 2009, we have confirmed 41 nesting pairs and located 33 of their nesting spots.
Nest sites confirmed for:
Aristotle box/off Central - 3 young hatched around 12-13 March.
The earliest we have this season. These young were banded on 1 Apr.
Bacon Ave. A new nest reported via email. Nest not located, but a whole
family of young seen in the neighborhood tells us that there was a successful
nest nearby.
Bay St. - The Bay St. pair has moved over to Lamar, just a few blocks
away from their old nest tree, which was cut down 2 years ago. We didn't find
their nest last year. This year they had 2 young, which branched on 22 apr. We
banded one of the two.
Berkeley box/Latta Park - they're back
in the box in the park. I think with a new female. 1 egg. We checked more
recently and found 2 eggs, so our first check was right in the middle of egg
laying. We banded two young on May 4. They were about 25 days old.
Brandywine/Chelsea - Chilly, a young tagged
in '07 at the Nature Museum, has settled down here and been seen with a mate,
but no nest located yet. We found the nest (1 young in a giant cavity in a big
willow oak) and were informed by the neighbors that they raised a young last
year. Chilly (who turns out to be a female) was a precocious breeder, raising a
young before her first "hatchday." We finally climbed up to this nest
and discovered two young. The cavity is so big that we missed one on the first
peeper-scoping visit. One of the young was outfitted with a radio transmitter.
We lost the signal from this young (Salsa) not long after it left the nest area,
somewhere up Little Sugar Creek.
Brookberry - A new nest emailed in from the southern 'burbs off
China Grove - A report from the hinterlands has 2 eggs in this
box.
Colony Rd box/nr Sharon View - 2 eggs on 9 Mar. 2 young banded.
Country La. - 2 eggs in this box south of the Arboretum on 18
Mar.
Cowan's Ford - 2 eggs in a newly occupied box in Cowan's Ford
Nature Preserve. The nest failed. There were no signs that young had been in the
box when I visited it on April 30.
Crossgate - Our spies on Crossgate report that this chimney
nest is active again.
Cumberland/nr Freedom Park - Female incubating, won't budge
when we peeperscope, so no egg count yet. 1 young banded.
Dilworth East/nr Ideal Way - 2 eggs. Same tree as last few
years.
Eastover Rd. box - 3 eggs. 2 young hatched here. We're
recording with a nestcam at this nest. Well, from "2 young hatched" we banded 3!
We must have missed one of the young when we checked after hatching. Oops.
Evergreen Cemetery box - Female's incubating in the new box.
She won't move when we peeperscope the box, so we don't know how many eggs.
I climbed to this nest on 21 apr, 39 days after seeing the female apparently
incubating eggs. This is hard to explain. Incubation is 30 days, so either she's
on a second set of eggs (a rare event, but possible), the eggs are infertile, or
she had not laid back on 12 mar when we first peeperscoped the box. Still
incubating on May 4.
Foster box/off Sardis - 3 eggs on 12 Mar. Their first time with
a clutch this big. 3 young banded.
Glenridge - A pair visited a box we put up this on 24 January,
much too late for occupancy this year, I thought. We counted 2 eggs
Heather Lane Box - 2 eggs. 3 young banded, so we must have
checked between the 2nd and 3rd eggs.
Lansing box - 3 eggs. 2 young banded on 24 apr. Hatch date here
was about the 5th of April.
Latta Plantation Nature Preserve - 2 eggs in this box for the
first time. This is a pair we've been following since 2002. They've been in
several old trees, but we haven't located their nest since 2004. 2 young in
the box and we're recording prey items.
Nature Museum - 1 egg in the nest tree they've used for several
years (18 Mar). This pair is on their third male (Nat) and at least as of last
year, the same female we banded back in 2001.
Nature Museum 2 - These birds are back in front of the Nature
Museum (only 100 m from the other Nature Museum pair) in a nest cavity they 2
and 3 years ago (not last year). We don't know when they laid--we'll figure that
out once they hatch, but this is a really late start.
Percy box/Llewellyn - They're back in their box after a year in
the chimney across the street. Mrs. P. laid her first egg on the 3rd of March.
While changing the camera in the nest box, I confirmed that there are 2 eggs
which should hatch around the 3rd. This nest is on line on Cornell's NestCam site.
1 egg hatched on 5 apr. This was probably the second egg. 2 young in the nest.
Queens Rd East/Sharon - This pair has moved down to Sherwood,
where they always seem to wind up with their young anyway. We've found the nest,
but haven't counted eggs/young--it's a really high nest. They're in a big
sycamore. This is the oldest pair we have followed where neither the male or
female has been replaced since '03. We peeperscoped this nest and found it
empty. A raccoon has been seen in the area, so we suspect that's what happened
to this clutch of eggs. Now the locals report they've seen the adults and young!
Rama Creek - 2 eggs in this rural box in Huntersville. Second
year they've used the box. 2 young in the box. We're recording here with a
solar panel charging a deep-cycle battery. Great recordings from this box. One
young branched about 1 May.
Reedy Creek Nature Pres. II - 2 eggs. 2 young now. Recording
prey deliveries here. 2 young banded.
Reedy Creek Nature Pres. III - 3 eggs in this first-time box.
This may be Mrs. Reedy, whose nest we didn't find last year. It's not Mrs.
Reedy (I don't get hit when I go into the nest). 2 young banded on 22 apr.
Rhodes Ave box/South Park area - no eggs as of 13 March. This
is a new box. The birds are not using the box. They were seen entering it in
early March, but have apparently opted for a really big tree a couple of blocks
away.
Ridgewood - 1 egg. Same cavity they're used for several years.
Very strange goings on here. I went to the nest to pull the camera we'd left up
last year. The female was in the nest, apparently incubating or brooding. When I
got to the nest, it was empty. I came back a couple of days later and saw the
female's tail sticking up out of the nest cavity. Maybe she's getting ready to
lay a replacement clutch. This tree is protected by a predator guard, so
raccoons can't get to it, but the nest cavity not covered, so crows might have
gotten to the eggs.
Rockbrook/Colony - We haven't pinned down a nest site for this
female, banded as a youngster just south of Freedom Park in '02. She's
always one of the last to lay. She fledged her first successful brood last year after 4 nest
failures. We found her nest in an american beech tree. No count on eggs or young
yet. We saw one large young in the nest entrance on May 4. One of the adults
arrived with a snake in its beak.
Rural Hill box/nr Cowan's Ford N.P. - 3 eggs. This box failed
last year.
Thornridge/off Carmel - 2 eggs in this tree nest, new to the
study last year. 2 young on 22 apr. 2 young banded.
Union County - A new pair reported in a nest box. An egg was
found beneath the nest. A couple of days later, the female was in the box.
Sounds like the Ridgewood situation.
Valencia Terrace box - 2 eggs. 2 young banded 24 apr.
Vernon/off Providence - 2 eggs in the same beech tree they've
used for a few years. 1 young banded on 21 apr.
Wiffletree box/Huntington Farms - at least 2 eggs. This nest
failed last year, probably because the male was lost after eggs were laid. 1
young fell off the "front porch" of the box and was banded. The second branched
as well.
Active pairs - nests not located yet.
Ardsley Rd/Edgehill Park - For the
first time since the study began, we're not sure about this pair. It seems that
Nellie (the third female we've radio-tagged since 2001) probably died. If the
pair's here, they're pretty quiet.
Bromley/Henley - This old faithful pair is not in the box
they've been using for several years just up from the Farmers' Market, but are
in the area.
Campus I/UNCC - actually
not sure this is even a pair
Crescent Ave. - A new pair in Eastover.
Erickson Rd - Pair in the area, not back in the box they used
last year as of last check.
Hardwicke Rd - A new pair for the study. They're not in the
tree they used last year, but in the area.
Princeton/nr Freedom Park
- Maybe 2 pairs--one of which is probably the birds nesting
in front of the Nature Museum.
Sunset Rd/off Park
Summaries from some previous years:
2007
2005
2004
2002
