[NatureNS] Tree Swallow box report 2019

Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2019 08:31:06 -0300 (ADT)
From: "rita.paul@ns.sympatico.ca" <rita.paul@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
References: <DM6PR13MB325881ED112D564DC33CA221B7660@DM6PR13MB3258.namprd13.prod.outlook.com>
Importance: Medium
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects

=C2=A0 =C2=A05 boxes had Flying Squirrel roosts/nests 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
    <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
 
  <style type="text/css">.mceResizeHandle {position: absolute;border: 1px solid black;background: #FFF;width: 5px;height: 5px;z-index: 10000}.mceResizeHandle:hover {background: #000}img[data-mce-selected] {outline: 1px solid black}img.mceClonedResizable, table.mceClonedResizable {position: absolute;outline: 1px dashed black;opacity: .5;z-index: 10000}
</style>
 
 </head><body style="">
 
  <div>
   <span style="font-size: 12pt;">A great report Fritz</span>
  </div> 
  <div>
   <span style="font-size: 12pt;">You are very thorough.</span>
  </div> 
  <div>
   <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thanks for the interesting observations.</span>
  </div> 
  <div>
   <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Enjoy the fall</span>
  </div> 
  <div>
   <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Paul</span>
  </div> 
  <div>
   &#160;
  </div> 
  <div>
   &#62; On October 28, 2019 at 9:10 PM Fritz McEvoy &#60;fritzmcevoy@hotmail.com&#62; wrote:
   <br/>&#62; 
   <br/>&#62; 
   <br/>&#62; 
   <br/>&#62; 
   <br/>&#62; Hi All,&#160;
   <br/>&#62; &#160; &#160; &#160; I cleaned out my Tree Swallow boxes last week and the results were surprising good. Twenty-seven boxes were set up this season and most had activity of some kind. The results were:&#160;
   <br/>&#62; 27 boxes were used (1 is listed twice as it contained both a Red Squirrel and Tree Swallow next).
   <br/>&#62; &#160; 18 boxes contained Tree Swallow nests with signs of breeding (all had droppings, 2 contained egg fragments and 1 had a dead fledge). This was the largest number of successful nests I&#39;ve ever had here.
   <br/>&#62; &#160; &#160;5 boxes had Flying Squirrel roosts/nests and one of those had an active Flying Squirrel inside.
   <br/>&#62; &#160; &#160;2 boxes had Red Squirrel roosts (one was on top of a Tree Swallow nest)
   <br/>&#62; &#160; &#160;3 boxes were empty
   <br/>&#62; &#160; &#160; All the boxes had predator guards (3&#34; plexi squares with an 1-1/2&#34; entrance hole). Obviously these were somewhat unsuccessful in keeping out squirrels - the only pest I am concerned about. The predator guards were undamaged so the 1-1/2&#34; hole size must be too&#160;big. I expect they keep out pregnant Red Squirrels but allow in small Red Squirrels and most Flying Squirrels. An 1-1/2&#34; is the standard size given for Tree Swallow&#160;boxes - and for similar commercial predator guards. I&#39;m pretty sure remaking the guards with an 1-3/8&#34; hole would keep out most - if not all squirrels. &#160;The problem is would it also likely keep out pregnant Tree Swallows? It&#39;s probably something that should be researched, tested and written up about&#160;out by someone - just not me.
   <br/>&#62; The weather was similar to 2018 - cold and wet in June but mostly hot in July. I didn&#39;t notice a large number of swallows in the area this summer. In fact the numbers seemed low to me. So it was quite surprising when 2/3 of the boxes had Tree Swallow nests with breeding evidence. Maybe the Tree Swallow decline in this area is not as bad as I thought. We will see if next season proves just as successful as this year.&#160;&#160;
   <br/>&#62; All the best. 
   <br/>&#62; Fritz McEvoy
   <br/>&#62; Sunrise Valley (near Dingwall) CB
  </div>
 
</body></html>

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects