Birds in New Jersey 2016
8 May 2016
Inside the first house sparrow nest. It was abandoned at some point; the eggs never hatched.
Inside the second house sparrow nest
Meanwhile, mother house wren is laying a new egg every day in her nest box.
9 May: The second house sparrow nest a day later: One egg failed to hatch
The decoy house wren nest from the outside
The inside of the decoy nest
The house wrens are amazingly busy. This is inside a SECOND decoy nest. Some websites say that the house wren occupies several nest boxes near its own to keep competing bird families from starting up.
9 May: A fourth house wren egg in the "real" nest box
10 May 2016: inside the second house sparrow nest box
10 May: Five house wren eggs
11 May 2016: in the second house sparrow nest, the mother stays in the nest while the little ones are photographed
Meanwhile, there are now six eggs in the house wren nest box
9 May: a house sparrow egg that was abandoned and didn't hatch is placed next to a regular egg from the supermarket
12 May: The two surviving house sparrow kids have opened their eyes
14th: The industrious house wrens have rearranged their six eggs.
15th: house sparrow little ones
Meanwhile, at FDU...
11 May 2016: a female duck incubates her eggs next to a building at FDU
12 May
13 May. To their credit, no FDU students disturb the nest.
13 May 2016: The "Canada" geese that have taken up year-round residence on campus have produced another batch of little ones; different families have chicks in different stages of development. These are some of the smaller ones.
Chicks in a nearby family are at a later stage of development
Another new bird species in our backyard, a few days later >>