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cleaning birdhouses, Re: White-faced Ibis (#400)



Hi Carolinabirders,

I and most people here generally take it as gospel that it's better for
the birds if we clean our nest boxes every winter (I don't have any up in
NC yet, but would have been cleaning them...). But the latest issue of the
Wild Bird Center's newsletter - compiled, I'm guessing, by Carolinabirder
Cynthia Fox? - cites a University of Kentucky research project in which
bluebird next boxes containing old nests which had previously fledged
young had 10 times greater success rates than identical boxes which were
empty. The scientists quoted by Cynthia (or whomever) speculate that
cleaning boxes is less successful at reducing insects parasitic on bird
nestlings than it is at reducing beneficial insects which are parasitoids
on the bird parasites! Something to think about... And maybe a study to
replicate in your own yard: clean half of your boxes, not the other half,
see what happens!

On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, John Wright wrote:
>
> The White-faced Ibis is my 400th bird species for North Carolina.  A few
> years ago I never thought I would reach this milestone.  What a difference a
> few good birding years and the internet make!

Attaway John! I still have saved a few Carolinabirds posts from when John
Fussell cracked 400 species in NC, the first person ever to do so, not
long after I first joined this listserv. We all discussed at length what a
difficult and unprecedented task it was. Now there's what, four or five of
y'all who have done it?

Many thanks to the folks who have responded to my RFI about finding
mountain-breeding birds in midsummer. Double thanks to the couple who
offered to meet me in person, I'm looking forward to it!

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/