The adults sat all night on the front branches of last season’s nest tree as seen in photos 1 and 2. Then briefly close together on the “love branch”, then further apart. and at 6:41 both took flight.
Great pictures! Have they decided which tree they are going to use this year? I read somewhere they were building a nest in a different tree.
Margy – You heard right. They are working on a third nest about 100 yards behind the current nest. Too early to know which nest they will settle in.
Any theories on why they would change trees? Hygiene, possibly? Thanks for the posts, Reese!
Chicadee – We can only guess as to why they build new nests almost next door to each other. Perhaps they know the old nest will not drain properly, or just want a different view. We do know that it is very normal for a pair to build more than one nest over a period of years, and sometimes like the NBG pair did in 2009 and 2010 move back into an old nest. So much we have yet to learn!!
The nest change is a suprise. How many years were they in that nest?
Sue C – The nest we can see was used 2004-2007 and 2009-2010. A second nest was used in 2008. The nest they are building now is their third, and all three are within about 100 yards of each other.
4 Comments
so nice to see them at “HOME” together. do hope they change their mind and go back to this nest 🙂
Thanks Reese as always
Dix
Great pictures! Have they decided which tree they are going to use this year? I read somewhere they were building a nest in a different tree.
Margy – You heard right. They are working on a third nest about 100 yards behind the current nest. Too early to know which nest they will settle in.
Any theories on why they would change trees? Hygiene, possibly? Thanks for the posts, Reese!
Chicadee – We can only guess as to why they build new nests almost next door to each other. Perhaps they know the old nest will not drain properly, or just want a different view. We do know that it is very normal for a pair to build more than one nest over a period of years, and sometimes like the NBG pair did in 2009 and 2010 move back into an old nest. So much we have yet to learn!!
The nest change is a suprise. How many years were they in that nest?
Sue C – The nest we can see was used 2004-2007 and 2009-2010. A second nest was used in 2008. The nest they are building now is their third, and all three are within about 100 yards of each other.