UPDATE and Next Nest Check

A little late with this post....BUT last week I was joined by Addison, Melanie, Ms. Maddox, Lily, Avery, Tommy, Caden, and the Barnes Family! What a wonderful group we had to see the progress our precious babies are making! We only checked the big white house this day because of misplaced keys, but I am have bolt cutters and plan to check the green pods on our next visit! I hope you can join me when I go on Tuesday at 10:30 am! We had some new eggs this check, so we should have some new babies! Everyone enjoyed the chance to hold a bird and examine them up close!

Here is a cluster of new eggs from a nest. Look at them closely. Do you see a difference in the color of the one in the middle compared to the others? What do you think this might mean?

I'll end with a picture of my FAVORITE discovery! Many of our babies are now full young adult purple martins! They are flying and so friendly! Not only have we been able to see them fly, but they also will sit on my hand and look around. Amazing and such a fun thing for all to see!

Update and Next Nest Check!

Our visits keep getting more exciting! This past visit we had Jonathan and his family, my kids, and Ms. Maddox and little Lily join us! We were once again able to observe different stages in the growth of the purple martins! Holding the little babies was exciting. We even saw a beautiful nest with fresh green leaves just waiting for eggs inside of the Green House Pod #2. Here are some pictures from our visit. The next nest check will be Tuesday, June 24th (tomorrow) at 10:30...HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Summer Update

NEXT VISIT THIS THURSDAY AT 10:15 What an amazing visit we had last week doing our nest check! I was excited to be joined by some of you as we observed the purple martins during ALL stages of development from egg, newly hatched, new barbs and then all the way to fledglings leaving the nest! Ms. Wheeler and I both held a fledgling and released them as they flew into the sky! SO COOL! < I hope to see you Thursday!!

NEST CHECK FRIDAY June 13th at 9:00

Hope you are all enjoying your summer! We are planning to do a nest check tomorrow morning at 9:00! Please join us!

LONG WEEK!

It has been a long week of rain, rain, and more rain! We worried about the little babies and unhatched eggs, but could not do any nest checks because as a result! We did make 1 attempt on Wednesday and discovered a couple of babies that had not survived. :( After removing them and then stepping in LOTS of mud, we decided to wait until today. May 30, 2014 Our nest check was VERY exciting! Here are some amazing pictures! We even were able to see a baby hatch!

We did discover a few problems....eggs knocked around in House #1 and "mites" onmany of the babies as you can see in the picture. They are so tiny, they are almost invisible! We used some wonderful stuff from the bird people that helps get rid of them!!!

There are so many wonderful experiences from today!!!! Flat Stanley came to visit and was able to hold his very own baby martin! The 2nd grade was also able to watch a baby hatch from its egg! SO EXCITING!

Friday, May 16, 2014

WE HAVE BABIES!!!

Not only was today Rodeo Day, but it is also the birthday of some precious baby martins! During our nest check in White House #2, this is what we found When you look at the nest, you might not notice anything. BUT THEN.....

You get to see these three tiny babies and 2 eggs that have yet to hatch! All of the kids were very excited and anxious to see the baby up close. We don't want to scare the baby, but we took one out to compare with our picture chart and determine the age of the baby. How old do you think it is?

The students determined that this tiny baby had to have hatched today! So exciting! As we left, all of the beautiful martins that we have watched for weeks flew in....what a wonderful end to a GREAT day!

Monday, May 5, 2014

Monday, May 5

WOW! The martins are really busy today! We went out to clear out any sparrow nests and found LOTS of mommas staying in nests so we couldn't count their eggs. :( We also now are focusing on the Green pod #1 as our first egg to hatch. The Green house #4 pod is EMPTY. What do you think happened to the eggs? Our second graders have learned that there are 3 reasons why they might be gone: 1. The sparrows have knocked out all the eggs. (We did find a lot on the ground) 2. The martins "knew" something was wrong with the eggs and knocked them out. 3. A scout that does not have a mate knocked them out. We will not know for sure what happened but we do know that we now have a total of 48 EGGS!!!!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

April 30 NEST UPDATE

The second graders went out to once again count the eggs in the nests! They have learned that purple martins lay 1 egg a day up to 5-7 eggs. Today they witnessed this as many nests had 2-3 more eggs than Monday! They even had a chance to see a male and female bird in a nest WITH eggs! So cool! Above is White House #1 where we found both martins with eggs. Can you tell which one is the female? What is your evidence?

Green House #7-This picture shows a fully created nest. There are 5 eggs and we even saw a fresh green leaf!

This is Green House #4- Our first egg was in this nest. Students are predicting that the egg will hatch between May 9 and May 11th! What a wonderful Mother's Day for our birds!

Monday, April 28, 2014

On Thursday, April 24th, the second graders went out to check the nests! We hoped to find our first eggs, BUT none were found. However, we did find 2 really, REALLY thick nests with lots of leaves! We are inferring that the purple martins are close to laying eggs. Here are a few pictures of the nests. You will notice that one nest is made with a lot of mud! Very cool! In addition to the nests, we were surprised to open up one pod and find a momma bird! Here she is!

Friday, April 11, 2014

April 11th Nest Check

Second grade went out this afternoon and observed the purple martins! We found lots of evidence of purple martin nests but also found quite a few sparrow nests and eggs. Here are a few photos with some things for you to think about! Feel free to add comments or ask us questions!

Look at the material in the picture. Do you think it is a purple martin nest beginning?

These are both sparrow eggs. But can you tell the difference between the 2 groups of eggs? We are not sure. but we infer that they might be different kinds of sparrows. What are your thoughts?

We have observed sparrows AND purple martins going into house number 3. This is what we found today. What kind of nest is it? We do not have any purple martin eggs yet, but house number 4 has a beautiful nestand we are just waiting for that green leaf signal! Happy weekend!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

April 3, 2014 Nest Check

Today all of the second graders went outside to check the martin nests and record their observations on a chart. We are happy to share that we have counted over 20 martins! Green Roof Houses These houses have been taken over by the purple martins! We have NOT seen a sparrow nest here in over a week. This was also the first place a martin pair made a nest in house number 4.

All of us are inferring that this will be the first nest to have eggs! We are just waiting for some green leaves! Here are a few more pictures of our purple martins! Enjoy!