Nature

Black snake down

| edwinridout


This poor guy got thoroughly tangled in the plastic net we had put around the tomatoes. I was able to free him after about ten minutes of snipping, but he got in a shot at me before I could get another of him. We don’t know how long he was stuck, but think it had to be less than 24 hours. There were tight loops around him in lots of places, and I’m pretty sure I got them all cut off. Some were very constricting around his mid-section, and there may have been some damage to his skin there — or it might just have been ruffled scales. I was trying to see when he zapped me.

Bluebird at the box

| edwinridout

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuiKhQ5mhag”
Our Wildview camera’s video of a bluebird at the bluebird box 21 May 2011, 4:23pm. Only a week ago we though this box was occupied by chickadee chicks. After Youtube starts, you can activate the full-screen option by clicking an icon in lower right which looks like one of these:      

Owls

| edwinridout

Still no sign of owl interest in Sandy’s barred owl nesting box. We have started to hear owls in the distance over the last few weeks. I could hear a barred owl this morning before dawn today, and even before dusk yesterday. We’ve also heard another owl, possibly the Great Horned. This morning’s email brought this from Rob Bierregaard at Univ North Carolina, Charlotte (whose plans I followed in building Sandy’s owl box):

. . . we’re back on the internet airwaves with a NestCam in a Charlotte Barred Owl nest box.

This is a new box. Our old faithful pair (Percy and Mrs. Percy) did not use their box. I suspect Mrs. Percy may have come to an untimely end. Percy was scraping in the nest box back in January, and has been delivering food to a female, but they didn’t use the box.

The pair we’re following this year has always started nesting very late. 2 years ago when we first got them in a box, I put the box up on the 1st of February, knowing that that was way too late for them to nest that year. A month later the female laid eggs. Hatch this year was about the 20th and 22nd of April, at which point some Charlotte pairs had young out of the nest already.

Go to this cornell.edu website to watch the cam. [Pick Select a Cam, then Barred Owl, NC.] We should have about 4 more weeks to watch the young grow. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the big 17-year cicada hatch predicted for this year.