Kathleen Snyder
This summary is the best I can surmise with the data I have. Only two of our seven prairies had monitoring situations where the nest box was opened and the contents examined during nesting. Two prairies had boxes that were cleaned out at the end of the season and the contents evaluated. Three prairies had monitors who visited regularly and took notes on what was observed; clean out is done at the end of the season to ascertain what actually occurred. Consequently, our data isn’t as accurate as we would like.
Two things of note:
1. For the first time, mites became a problem. We had mites in three locations. I couldn’t find any acceptable treatments for them. My references said that mites are not usually a serious problem for the chicks. During fall cleanup, the mites had almost completely disappeared.
2. We had more bluebird fatalities than before. For the first time (4 years), we had a dead adult in a box. We also had 14 dead chicks, mostly at Tenalquot Prairie. I have no ideas as to why this year was bad and whether this was just an aberration.
Below is a summary of successful nests (not chicks) over the seven prairies:
Western Bluebirds 27
Tree/Violet-green Swallows 67
House Wrens 8
Chickadees 7
I defined a successful nest as having at least one chick fledged from it. Next year we will have better data from Glacial Heritage as most of the boxes there now open from the top. I will be keeping a close eye on bluebird fatalities in 2026.
Photo credit: Western Bluebird, by Rachel Holland.
