Kathleen Snyder
The 2024 nesting season went very well for our nest boxes over multiple prairies in south Thurston County. We are almost finished cleaning them out – only 9 boxes left to do – and here are the results:
Swallows – both Violet-green and Tree 87
Western Bluebird 26
House Wren 5
Our 107 boxes are spread over five prairies with one more prairie still needing to be visited. Different this year was the large number of nests that the swallows had towards the end of nesting season. According to the available research, swallow pairs rarely have double clutches so these were most likely different pairs taking over a box that had already been used once. We are well aware of the hardship that aerial insectivores are having now so this abundance of swallow babies is very encouraging. This success could have been due to few really hot days this past summer. It should be noted that when we clean the boxes at the end of the season, it is impossible to tell which species of swallow has used them.
There was one other noteworthy occurrence. One of the boxes had three different nests on top of each other. Having two nests inside one box is common but having three was a first. At the bottom was a bluebird nest (unsuccessful); in the middle was a partial House Wren nest (unsuccessful) and at the top was a successful swallow nest.
I think I can speak for the rest of the team that being out on the prairies in spring and watching the birds in their display and mating behavior is a joy and a gift that we all loved.
Photo credit: Western Bluebird, by Rachel Hudson.
