Friday's Update

Well, I went up to check the birds and as predicted...we only have one nest left with babies. When I come in the morning, there are usually TONS of martins. However, at 4:00 today it was VERY quiet! We did find a sparrow nest in one of the Martin's old nests! We thought that was pretty smart of them instead of starting all over! As soon as I get the pics, I will post. During one visit, we had a few questions, so here are answers that Jayden found! 1) Where do purple martins sleep? If they have not fledged yet, they sleep in the nest box or gourd. If they have fledged, they sleep in areas that they think are okay to perch in. 2) How many purple martin babies did MWE have this year? Jayden calculated that there were six nests of purple martins, each with 4 young, except one nest that had 3. He wrote the problem like this: 4+4+4+4+4+3=23 The answer is 23 new purple martins!

VISIT TODAY!!!!!

Sorry for the short notice, but we will be checking the birds today at 4:00. Please join us if you can!!!!

Sunday Update

When I first arrived at the purple martin houses, I was AMAZED at all of the birds! I literally rolled down my window and started snapping shots. Here are a few that show ALL of them on the 2 houses and the roof of MWE. If you click on the picture, you can see it closer. How many birds do you count? After taking still shots, I decided to video. I will post that at the top after I finish this update! The whole Gunsolley family joined me today as well as the Campbell family! It was great to have them all their to experience this wonderful time! Prior to looking in the houses, Jayden predicted that there would be 2 fully grown babies in Pod 2. (There were 4 to begin)....and he was... RIGHT! We picked in and saw these 2 beauties looking back at us! All the other pods were empty except of course our Pod #6. These babies are getting so big! Then, Mrs. Campbell found this that one of our birds dropped... and we tried to see if they wanted to eat it for dinner... I think they were too scared to eat. So then we moved the dragonfly to the older babies in pod 2.... We watched, but think they were too scared also. So I will leave you with a few more shots of the MANY MANY purple martins! One of the shots will be trees and they were actually perching in the top! Can you spot them?

Next Nest Check

Ok, so I am thinking since the forecast calls for rain today, we will go on Sunday. I am planning on going around 4:45ish. I REALLY hope we can have some MWE friends join us!

Pictures/Update from Wed. Nest Check

Thanks again to Mrs. Gunsolley for the WONDERFUL pictures! I keep forgetting my camera!!! We had some wonderful visitors with us today! See below for the MWE friends who joined me! Here is the most recent update: Pod #1-Empty still Pod #2-The 3 babies have full feathers and are bound to leave the nest any day now! Pod #3- NOTHING Pod #4- A little bit of a sparrow nest was in here along with a.... ...a broken egg!!! Pod #5- EMPTY Pod #6-These are the youngest of the babies and they are just starting to get their flight wings! More friends had a chance to see a baby up close!! Pod #7 and #8-EMPTY So to sum it up....it looks like in a week or so, we will be empty nesters! We will be going up to check our youngest babies this weekend. I am thinking tomorrow, Saturday. I will update with a time!

WE WILL BE THERE TODAY AT 4:30!!!!

Avery i son the mend! Hope to see some of you there for the nest check! I have a strong feeling that we will see a LOT of empty nests! What do you think???

One more day and new photos

It looks like we need one more day inside. So, we will go up Wed afternoon at 4:30 to see the birds. Now...last Thursday, this is what we saw... Pod 1-empty Pod 2- The babies are getting their flight feathers! Thanks to Mrs. Gunsolley, we have a close-up!! Pod 3-FULL nest with no egg Pod 4- Barely a nest BUT it had an egg Pod 5-Look at these big babies!!! Pod 6-Look how big our youngest babies are getting! Pod 7 and 8-BIG BABIES! LOOK AT THESE mommas ready to feed their babies!!! You can even see a baby peeking out of pod 5!

Sorry for the delay!

Pictures will be posted by the end of the day! Avery has been sick, so I will not be going today. I am hoping to make it to the houses Tuesday around 4:30. I will keep you updated!

Tuesday morning post with Friends!

I was so excited to have some MWE friends join me and Caden this morning as we checked the Purple Martins! Jayden, Miles, and Mac were able to come and have a first hand close up experience with our precious birds! We are getting close to having more babies leave the nests! It is so exciting to know that WE, Meadow Wood Elem. have helped these birds have a successful nesting season!!! I cannot wait to see what happens next year! Here is today's update! Pod #1- The babies have left the nest! Pod #2- The babies are growing and getting more and more feathers! Jayden and Mac had a chance to hold one and see the barbs and emerging flight feathers! Pod #3-The sparrows built a HUGE nest, but NO EGG! :) Pod #4-A few bits of straw, but NO nest! Pod #5- These babies had lots of flight feathers and are ready to take off any day! Mrs. Campbell said she spotted the mom feeding them on the front porch! Pod #6- These are our youngest birds. They are beginning to get the barbs and feathers seem to be not far behind. We got an up-close look... Pod #7 and #8 we observed carefully. They also will be taking off any day now! Check out their full coat of flight feathers!!! Now, we did find 2 sparrow eggs in the white house, but we also found more nesting material in #17. How late in the season will martins lay eggs? Does anybody know? If you do, comment or send me an email at elise.cooper@springbranchisd.com Take a look at the growing nest: As i said in yesterday's post, I will be checking the nests on Friday at 10 and Ms. Maddox will be joining me! Hope you can come too!

Tuesday and Friday Morning

Hello to all of our blog viewers! Our babies are growing and I would love to have you come join us this week to see them! I will be going to check the nests Tuesday morning at 10 and Friday morning at 10. I may be a few minutes early or late....but I will take them down as close to 10 as possible! I would LOVE to see you there! If you can't be there...no worries...we will have pictures to post! Hope you are enjoying the pictures!

Friday Afternoon

The kids and I went to check the birds before the weekend. There were none around when we arrived and all was quiet. We checked the white house first. In condo 17 we found this What kind of nest does it look like to you? Then we moved on to the pods. We have officially had a successful nest! The babies in pod #1 are.... GONE! Yeah!!! Now for the other pods. Pod #2 There were still 3 eggs unhatched. The 3 babies looked tired but their eyes were open! Pod #3 Well looks like the sparrows are still trying, but no egg! Pod #4 was empty!!! Pod #5 These babies had feathers and looked like they were ready to fly right out! Pod #6 Our tiniest babies were chirping and obviously VERY hungry! We could hear them before we even opened the lid! I bet this was their momma! Pod #7 and #8 These babies have lots of feathers! Wonder if we will see them on the porches soon?