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Wish I was closer Carol. I have 2 drawers with a total of around 6000+ worms with 3500 more in my refrigerator. And I have around 8000 more small ones growing with 2 other drawers with many eggs incubating. Would like to share. My second brood should fledge on the 4tn.
David
Stafford, VAChris, if the hatch was on June third the expected fledge date would be June 20. I don’t know if one or two would leave earlier if they hatched a day before the others. My fledging’s have always be all-day affairs. I have only seen 2 fledge within 30 minutes of each other once.
David
Stafford, VAGood to see you again. The posting of photos is a bit of a chore, but once you do it several times it becomes very easy.
David
Stafford, VAGreat to hear that all of you have had good hatches. I am looking for mine on Friday (6/18).
David
Stafford, VALike the nestbox. Do you have a baffle on the pole to deter the climbing
critters?David
Stafford, VAThank you Judy. Mama bird is incubating 4 eggs. She had 4 hatch from the 5 eggs in the first nest so maybe this is what we will see for the rest of the year. hopefully we will get a third nest around mid July.
David
Stafford, VAWay to go Carol. I did save my foam shields from last year but I am going to use a thicker piece of foam this year. I have it cur and read to go after the eggs hatch.
David
Stafford, VACarol I just put up a shield on the top of the box. It is a simple 12 x 14″” rectangle of 3/8″ plywood raised up with two 3/4″ strips of the same plywood. It overhangs the sides by about 2″ and the front by about 3″. It could almost serve as a wren guard also. I am going to wait until after the eggs hatch to put some insulation on the west side of the box. The east side is pretty well shaded by large maple trees for most of the morning. I will try to get a photo up tomorrow.
We are experiencing the same heat as you are high 80’s – low to mid 90’s for the next few days. This should also offer a bit of protection for the summer southwesterly rain storms that we will get later in the week.
David
Stafford, VAMy yard is about 165′ wide and the box is about in the middle and 85 feet from the house. I can mow to about 50′ from the sides of the box and about 30′ from the front before she comes off the nest. I would bet that he could mow the lawn to within 50 – 75 feet from the box and Mama bird would probably watch him from inside the nestbox.
David
Stafford, VAThanks Carol. I do not have a garden to till but I do mow around the back yard. While she is laying or incubating I use my weed-eater to cut a 9-10″ strip around the base of the nestbox pole – not hitting the pole support. Then I use my lawn mower to cut a 8′ circle around the box. I then use my lawn tractor to mow the front and side yards to let the female back in the nest for a while and then I move to the back yard to finish up. I stay to the sides as long as I can and if she appears in the nest box I stop for a while to see if she stays or flies off to a nearby tree. If she moves I continue cutting and get the lawn in strips from the nestbox out to the side areas that I have cut, staying outside the 4′ circle that I had previously cut.. It takes me about 3 hours to mow the yard completely with the moderate interruptions. I do this up to about 12 days after they hatch and just do the front and side lawn until they fledge
David
Stafford, VANick, Carol, I have them (the pileated) in my back yard also but they have never approached the feeders. They stick to a couple of dead trees beyond the garden. I have the Downy and Red-bellied at the feeders like Carol. They are fun to watch as they climb around the vertical tube feeders instead of using the hopper feeder.
David
Stafford, VA
