[Bluebird-babble] 2007 nestbox summary

Mon Aug 13 23:41:27 EDT 2007

UCHSC is the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.  I'm in the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs (in the  Division of Psychiatry) at the medical school.  Since the medical school campus has merged with the University of Colorado-Denver, we're now officially UCDHSC, just to make matters worse--the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.  Unbelievable.  Sometime soon, they're supposed to announce a name change that will (hopefully) be less awkward than UCDHSC.  Until then, at least they haven't made us change our already awkward-enough e-mail addresses.

But that's neither here nor there for the cavity nesters.  Sorry to bug the list with this reply, but I wasn't sure I would interpret correctly what might be (or might not be) Jerry and Mary Alice's e-mail address in their signature.  Better safe than sorry...

Tina Mitchell

________________________________

From: bluebird-babble-bounces at denveraudubon.org on behalf of Mary Alice Smith
Sent: Mon 8/13/2007 7:48 PM
To: Listserv of the Colorado Bluebird Project
Subject: Re: [Bluebird-babble] 2007 nestbox summary

Tina,

Thanks for the prompt, thorough and corteous reply.

Sice you covered it all [yes, tree swallows] I have only one other question:
What / where is "USDHSC?"  Sounds like a marriage beteen US Dept. Of Health
& Southern Cal.

Jerry & Mary Alice Smith
US at CSMBU.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: <Christina.Mitchell at UCHSC.edu>
To: <bluebird-babble at denveraudubon.org>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Bluebird-babble] 2007 nestbox summary

Thanks for the kind words.  Property with a stream running through it in
CB--yum!  I guess a price you pay for the wonder of the stream is Tree
Swallows (is that what you're referring to?).  Our closest water (not
counting the recirculating pump in the bird bath) is the Arkansas River,
about 1.5 miles away.  And even there, we didn't see any Tree Swallows
breeding.  (We're doing a priority block for the Breeding Bird Atlas that
includes our property and part of the river--so we're exceptionally aware of
the breeders of the area this summer.)  The Violet-greens are the last
breeders to arrive in our area, so there's very little competition between
them and other nesters.  In fact, they seemed to wait politely for the 2
nests of White-breasted Nuthatches to fledge before taking over.  I actually
thought initially that the nuthatches were doing a second brood, the
transition was that seamless (and the eggs are that similar).

And you guessed it--I'm a research psychologist.  I love numbers and
statistics.  Summarizing numbers is my biz.

Tina Mitchell
Christina.Mitchell at UCHSC.edu

________________________________

From: bluebird-babble-bounces at denveraudubon.org on behalf of Gerald B Smith
Sent: Mon 8/13/2007 5:22 PM
To: 'Listserv of the Colorado Bluebird Project'
Subject: Re: [Bluebird-babble] 2007 nestbox summary

Tina,

VERY nice [and scientific] report ... most envious of your number of boxes
... and species ... ALL we get for last two years in our two boxes on ½ acre
with stream running through [yes, IN town] ...are swallows ... and, purple
they are ... maybe Bluebirds NEXT year ... but doubt it because the swallows
arrive about two weeks earlier at this valley / altitude of 9K ft.?

Good job ... wondering where your science education came from?

Jerry & Mary Alice Smith

Crested Butte, CO 81224

PS  Have you ever seen a dozen male swallows court and then feed one female
... she kept all of them on the "the string" well past fledgling by playing,
"with child" again and again ... what a life!

________________________________

From: bluebird-babble-bounces at denveraudubon.org
[mailto:bluebird-babble-bounces at denveraudubon.org] On Behalf Of
Christina.Mitchell at UCHSC.edu
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 5:05 PM
To: Bluebird-Babble at denveraudubon.org
Subject: [Bluebird-babble] 2007 nestbox summary

Hi, all--

Sadly, but inevitably, our breeding season has come to an end.  We have 71
nestboxes on 39+ acres in central Colorado--pinyon/juniper/scrub oak habitat
at about 7200' in the rain shadow (eastern flank) of the northern Sangres.
We've had nestboxes up for 7 years, but this is the first year I've
monitored them during the breeding season.  (In the past, we've simply
cleaned out the boxes at the end of the season and guessed at what might
have used them.)  This summer, we had 7 different species using the
nestboxes; 23 boxes were used by birds (and lots by mice and chipmunks) and
2 boxes by 2 different species (Violet-green Swallows moved in right after
White-breasted Nuthatches fledged).  The big species surprise was one pair
of Western Bluebirds; we've never had them summer in our habitat before.

Here's the summary.

Mountain Bluebird:  26 eggs; 14 fledged; 53.8% success. (We had 2 very late
nests--total of 10 eggs--that never hatched and probably never had a chance.
If I adjust for those, the rate was 87.5%.  I like that better, although
53.8% is better science.)

Western Bluebird:  6 eggs; 6 fledged; 100%

Non-bluebird species-

White-breasted Nuthatch:  14 eggs; 14 fledged; 100%

Violet-green Swallow:  37 eggs; 29 fledged; 78.4%

Mountain Chickadee:  18 eggs; 18 fledged; 100%

Juniper Titmouse:  11 eggs; 5 fledged; 45.5%

Ash-throated Flycatcher:  9 eggs; 8 fledged; 88.9%

Total:  121 eggs; 94 fledged; 77.7%

The juniper titmice either were the unluckiest or made the worst choices.
Only 1 of 3 nests raised any young at all; eggs were removed early on by
some critter (snake? chipmunk?) in the other 2.  The Violet-green Swallows
had the highest (and only, actually) mortality among the nestlings--5 dead
in 2 boxes, no apparent sign of predators, unknown cause of death.

It was a very fun undertaking.  We have 30 more nestboxes that were
unmonitorable this year (placed too high or built so that the bottom
opened--great for cleaning, but not for monitoring). My husband's going to
reposition or and/or revamp those over the winter, so I'll have even more
next year.  Thanks to Kevin and the CBP for providing the encouragement and
support to get me motivated to give it a try!

Tina Mitchell

Coaldale, CO

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