Cavity Nester Nests, Eggs and Young Photos and Bios:
Carolina Chickadees are nesting in the 2" inside diameter steel pipe that this street sign is mounted on. Their nest started above the second bolt (26.5" down) and the top is 13.5" down from the opening at the top of the pipe. They have to squeeze by a 5/16" diameter bolt that holds the sign to the pipe. Photo by Keith Kridler of TX.
Karen Ouimet of CT left her bathroom window open one day... and came home to a Carolina Wren nest in a container used to hold her hair scrunchies (on the top of the wooden cabinet.) She is leaving the window open for them. It is the only bathroom in the house, but they don't seem to mind her showering, flushing the toilet, or even blow drying her hair three feet away.
Nests inside electrical Square D breaker panels. Each of the open doors had at least one breaker missing, creating a large nestbox. Three that were open to the weather had nests. One was an old Starling nest. The other two were probably old bluebird nests. Photo by Keith Kridler of TX.
Two bluebird pairs raised young in 55 gallon trash barrels right in the middle of the stations at a shooting range used on weekends. The bluebirds were nesting in empty shotgun shell boxes surrounded by empty shot shells down in the barrels.
Keith Kridler has seen bluebirds and titmice both nest in this 6" interior diameter pipe. The nest in the photo is 17" away from the end of the pipe. In 2007 it was occupied by a Black Widow spider.
This one is particularly funny because the wreath says "Home is where you build your nest." Note the nest in the back of the little birdhouses. Four House Finches grew up in it.
Eastern Bluebirds nesting in an opening in a metal building that is 4.5" tall by 5.5" wide. Photos by Keith Kridler. There are 21 nestboxes up in this park, with six other pairs of bluebirds nesting, but they still chose this spot.
This (Titmouse?) nest was built in the fan of an industrial air conditioner. The occupants would have been struck by the fan blades when it was on, so it was moved to a nestbox that was strapped to the the air conditioner, but unfortunately it was abandoned, even though it contained 5 eggs. Titmice are not tolerant of nest site disturbance. Photo by Chris Asmann.
The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo.
-Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist and educator. Reflection #54, Aphorisms and Reflections, selected by Henrietta A. Huxley, Macmillan, 1907.
