Carolina Chickadees are early breeders and we found 9 CACH nests, most with eggs and two boxes with nestlings. April 25 was the birthday for one clutch of 5 and the other box had 4 nestlings 4 days old.
Twenty-four of the older boxes showed evidence of Prothonotary Warbler nest building – everything from 1” of moss to a complete nest with three eggs! Another nest had one egg. The eggs are creamy white with dark brown speckles. The nests are a combination of moss and cypress twigs, usually 2-3 inches of each with the cypress twigs on the top layer. We observed one PROW female approach a box with nesting material and another flew out of a box as we approached. Incidentally we observed a good size watersnake curled up on a limb nearby!
New boxes installed in mid-March are not seeing much activity – except from wasps. We did hear PROW singing near these boxes, but not in the quantity we observed in the area of the established boxes where we heard or saw a PROW near almost every box. We’ll see what happens to these new boxes as the nesting season progresses.
