After Lake Runnemede I went to Marton Road in Windsor, Kestrel was noisy around nest boxes. Mike. Michael T. Quinn Habitat Helper P. O. Box 639 Windsor, VT 05089 802.674.2522 "Only Connect..." ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Rimmer" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2012 8:38:40 PM Subject: [UVB] Lake Runnemede A record 26 birders attended this morning's Windsor Quest outing at Lake Runnemede. It was an excellent, if not spectacular, morning, with highlights below among the 33 species. Wood Duck 2 Ring-necked Duck 6 Lesser Scaup 1 female Common Merganser 7 Double-crested Cormorant 3 flyover heading north Northern Flicker 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1 Tree Swallow 8 Carolina Wren 1 singing Song Sparrow 16 Swamp Sparrow 2 singing White-throated Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco 3 Purple Finch 1 singing Pine Siskin 2 Evening Grosbeak 1 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/vt) A few of us stopped at The Simon Perarce floodplain site afterwards and had a male Red-bellied Woodpecker along the river, but little else of note. I've been keeping tabs on an Eastern Bluebird nest in Hillside Cemetery off Hopson Road in Norwich. I returned on March 25 from a week away and found a fully-constructed nest in the usual box (3 successful broods last year). The weather immediately turned cold, and stayed that way for almost 2 weeks, and I saw almost no further activity, other than the female bringing some nest lining on April 3. The pair was rarely visible nearby during this entire time. On April 11 at 7:30 am, a single egg was in the nest. On the 12th at 7:30 am the female was sitting tight and I did not check the contents. Yesterday at 7:40 am 2 eggs were present, and there was no sign of either adult. I checked again at 6 pm - 3 eggs were in the cup and the female was inside the box perched on the rim (I didn't realize it until I opened the box, but she was completely unperturbed). This evening at 7:45 pm she was in the box again, presumably incubating. Last year the female (probably the same bird) laid her first egg on April 16 and was incubating 4 eggs on the 19th. In 2010, she also laid her first egg on the 16th and was incubating 4 eggs on the 20th. So, she's only a few days ahead of schedule this year after her false start during the balmy late March spell. Chris -- Chris Rimmer Vermont Center for Ecostudies P.O. Box 420 Norwich, VT 05055 802-649-1431 ext. 1 http://www.vtecostudies.org