Well things are going slowly here even though everything is early. We had a very mild Winter this year followed by a warm and dry Spring here in WI. Plants are way ahead of schedule this year. We have five pairs of TRES slowly building nests here on our property, one I think will have eggs soon as I saw them doing the swishy swishy yesterday. Some of the others barely have grass in the nestbox yet. We also have a pair of Blues but not in the immediate yard, they are on the back line of our property (we have 5 acres) and the box is out of sight of the house. No eggs yet though. Our Dees have decided they wanted a natural cavity and I actually found it. They are in an old dead Popple tree, with a tiny flashlight I was able to locate the nest and on a sunny day just after noon you can see down the hole into the nest, I saw at least four eggs (could be more) yesterday as Mom came off the nest when I was looking.

Down at the park where I monitor nestboxes we have a Blue pair with only three eggs, not sure why only three but she is incubating now. We did have a cold front go through this weekend that dropped the temps and it was rainy and extremely windy so I am not sure if that would cause her to start incubating and not lay more or not. She had two eggs as of Friday and when I checked on Monday only three and she was on the nest incubating. Yesterday still only three.

Also at the park we have two pairs of Tree Swallows, no eggs yet for them. One pair has a complete nest, the other barely started. Then amazingly enough I found another pair of Dees that I watched excavate a woodpecker hole (just a hole not an old woodpecker cavity) and they now have a nest in it. It is much harder to see though as I have to use a mechanics tiny mirror and a flashlight. The cavity they made goes over and then down from the woodpecker hole.

So that is what is going on here so far this year. I am hoping another pair of Blues will show up and nest in the yard but not sure if that will be happening or not.

Donna