Wild Wild Woods

The pond is home to Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor  who hunt insects 'on the wing'.  They catch flying insects while flying low o...

Peeking into the nest box . . .  Tree Swallows lay eggs and  disguise them by sticking feathers  barb-down so the fluffy vanes curl over the...

  I was surprised and apprehensive to see this big black wasp on a milkweed flower near the pond.  It was alarming because of its size (over...

The  rose flowers of Swamp Milkweed  Asclepias incarnata  plants are blooming in several places along the shore around the pond.  Actually, ...

The pond area is home to several  kinds of  dragonflies.  The females lay their eggs on a plant in the water, or just drop them into the wat...

The Tree Swallow pair return to the branch over the pond every day.  When she is in the nestbox, he sits on the branch to keep watch on he...

Many Painted Turtles  Chrysemys picta live in our pond. They mate once a year; in Minnesota, it is usually late May or June. Usually, Pain...

Each day, Tree Swallows fly above the pond looking like they are doing aerial acrobats for our amazement.  In reality, they are eating -- fe...

The female Red-winged Blackbird has been constantly hunting and making frequent trips back to her nest.  This signaled to me that her egg...

The Red-winged Blackbird nest is hidden in vegetation at the far end of the pond.  The female was in the nest when I approached.  The mal...

Peek inside some of the nestboxes in the wild wild woods . . . This box (above) holds a Tree Swallow nest -- a coz...

One nest box in the wild wild woods is being used by Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor this year.  Yesterday there were two eggs ...

  Seven little Black-capped Chickadee eggs hatched in the last few days.  The nestbox cam caught a snapshot when they were all ga...

NestWatch, the citizen science project!  We look for cavity-nesting birds in trees as well as in nest boxes.  A pair of Downy Woodpecker...

One of the nestboxes we watch is used this Spring by House Wrens Troglodytes aedon .  She has been incubating these seven eggs for nearly ...

The post on 4/23/2014 was about a nest containing two eggs.  If you guessed it was a Northern Cardinal nest, you were correct.  Today the fi...

Nestwatch season has begun in Minnesota and the wild wild woods. http://nestwatch.org/ Discovered today in an evergreen tree at the ed...

The Gray Catbirds Dumetella carolinensis were in the wild woods last summer, sounding like cats mewing in the understory.  This year, we ...

The nestboxes and snag tubes are full of nests.  A walk through the wild woods helped locate a few more nests.  And, today we noticed a fled...