Bee box continued

A big THANK YOU to Marilyn K., who left a comment on my previous post, "Bee box housekeeping." I'd given up on finding paper straws the right size to fit inside the box's tubes. Then she told me about using parchment paper. I didn't have any, but my neighbor, Marcella, did. And she gladly donated the end of a roll to the cause. (Thanks to you, too, Marcella!) What a great and easy idea! Took a little doing, cutting the paper to the right size and getting it to roll up tight enough to fit inside the tubes. Like Marilyn suggested, I used a pencil to start the rolling. Then I tightened the little straws up myself and slipped each one inside a tube. It worked! Plus, I have loads of parchment paper still left to use in the future. Maybe I'll get inspired and make more wooden bee boxes. In the meantime, I'm waiting to see if any solitary bees nest in the bamboo tubes I set out last week.

P.S. Because it was so helpful (and interesting) to me, here is Marilyn's comment in full:
 
"Thanks for reminding us that is time to invite bees to our property. Everyone needs to help them as much as possible because both honey bees and our native bee species are in serious decline. And since they are responsible for 1/3 of our food production, we really need their help.

I worked on a bee project and then a bee display last summer at Malheur NWR. I found that he most important thing you can do to prevent disease is to either make new houses every year, or use the paper straws. And you can actually pull the straws out in the fall and store them in another dark container with one exit hole - some people even store the in their refrigerators. Sometimes it takes 2 years for all the bees to hatch out.

Making the straws is easy - just wrap parchment paper - the kind you buy to bake with - around a pencil. Then stick the straw in the bee tunnel and let it expand to fit. If you drill the holes all the way through the bee block, you can make the straws an inch or two longer than the tunnel, fold them down and screw on a thing piece of wood to close off the back.

Another interesting thing I learned is that the bee lays female eggs in the back of the tunnel and male bees toward the front. So the males are sacrificed to feed the birds. The longer the tube, the more females you'll end up with."

Bee box housekeeping

Finally, after much procrastination, I took down the bee box I made in 2009 and cleaned it up. Well, actually, all I did was pull out the plastic straws I'd inserted and cleaned out the tubes. I bought some paper straws, as recommended by a bee expert Michael Warriner. But they're much too small in diameter. Darn it. So I'm going to leave the tubes as they are...a la natural.

Anybody need a box of paper straws made of birch? Or maybe I can use them for something else....

Bee box experiment

 I've read about and seen nest boxes for solitary bees on the Internet made from bamboo tubes. Since we have an ample supply of the invasive species in town, I decided to try making a couple. First, I stopped by the convenience store where they grow and asked permission to cut some. Go ahead, the guy said. Then I broke off an armful of dead bamboo and loaded the stuff into my car's trunk.

 At home, I cut the shoots below the node as directed.

That way, you make a tube with one close end...

...and the other open so the bees can nest inside. I wasn't very careful about choosing the sizes of tube opening. After all, this is an experiment. If I see that the bees like my two boxes, then I'll make more.

Now bundling the tubes together was a challenge. I wasn't finicky about the lengths either (some were much shorter than others). I finally decided to use rubber bands initially, then I secured them with string.

Since this is just an experiment, I decided to tie the two bundles to the cedar fence in the Meadow. Bee nest boxes should always face south or southeast to get the morning light. At least, that's what I read. So we'll see what happens next! 

Started with a bug and ended with a bird...

Lately, these pesky little flies or gnats have been multiplying under the bird feeders in our back yard. I'm not sure yet what they are, but I'll figure'em out soon. They don't bite or seem too bothersome. I hope and assume they'll die out soon. This afternoon, I figured I'd shoot a photo of them, which would help in their identification. From there, I wandered over to....

...the owl nesting box, where one of our eastern screech owls was roosting. This is the same box where the very-relaxed fox squirrel was reclining the other day. I took a photo or two of the owl, then it flew away. Darn. So then....


...I leaned down and photographed the flame acanthus that's begun to bud out. Such a promising sight...


...as are the young sprouts of the nearby yellow columbine. Despite our severe drought, nature keeps going. Or at least tries. As I was walking back to the house, I spotted a little bird on the ground under the feeders. Hmmm. I snapped one frame, inched up closer, snapped another, inched up more. Soon, I was on the ground, nearly at eye level...

...shooting this little pine siskin. It didn't seem to even notice or care that I was there! It kept eating and eating, poking its beak in the ground, scooting along, eating eating eating....


....it didn't mind at all that I kept shooting away (surrounded by those dratted flies), changing my position, leaning closer, moving away, snapping more. Then I began to wonder if something was wrong with it. Could it be sick? Why wasn't it afraid, like a normal bird? Who knows.




Finally, it finished dining. Well, sorta. Because it flew up and landed on our new yellow thistle feeder....

A few minutes later, it had enough there and flew over to the thistle sock. Would this little guy ever get enough to eat?


It took off, and I set my camera down on our patio table. I kept my eye on the bird, though. It landed on yet another feeder but not for long. From there, it was on to a bird bath on the ground. I went back for my camera and got another shot or two....


Will this tale/tail ever end, you must wonder by now? Me, too! From the bird bath, I foll0wed the little guy up into the oak tree, where it perched on some ball moss long enough for me to snag a few more photos. By then, both of us had had enough! It flew higher up in the branches, and I turned off my camera.

(Click on the photo!)

So goes my story that started with a bug and ended with a bird.

Funny guy

When I saw this eastern fox squirrel plop down atop our owl nest box this afternoon, I dashed into the house for my camera. Talk about relaxed! Nature definitely has a sense of humor!

An owl!

"I can't believe it! Go get your camera!" James exclaimed while we were outside in the back yard earlier this afternoon. I swiveled around and looked up into the oaks.....an eastern screech owl! It found the new nesting box we put up a few months ago! I'm guessing it's Al, Agatha's mate. She nested in our other box earlier this year. What a wonderful sight! Cliff Shackelford, who hand builds Owl Shacks like ours, told me that's what would likely happen: the male will find the nearby box and use it for roosting in the fall and winter.

In the meantime, James has been busy on a new project, well within Al's sights. But the owl doesn't mind our presence at all. In fact, I stood right under him to shoot my photos. He barely blinked at me. Sometimes the chickadees and titmice mob any owls they see roosting, but no one's bothered him so far. Lucky for him.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008–UPDATE–I stepped outside around noon to check on the owl box in the oaks (our first owl box is attached to an abandoned utility pole). Sure enough, an owl was perched in the opening. As I walked closer, though, it stepped back and disappeared within the box. That reaction makes me think that I saw the female this time.

Thinking back to last spring, at first the owl didn't care if we stood underneath the box. Then it'd act skittish and disappear. Two distinctly different behaviors. Which led me to surmise that we had two owls using the box. Thus, I attributed Al as the laid-back, c'mon-over guy and Agatha as the nervous, go-away gal.

They've both found the new box!

Waiting game

As part of our backyard Wildscape, we have an owl nesting box that James hung up March 27. It's attached to an ABANDONED utility pole near our chain-link fence. We measured precisely....the roof marks 10 feet above the ground, the recommended minimum height. By April 2, we spotted a pair of owl eyes peering at us from the box. A tenant!

Within a few days, the owl roosted regularly and didn't seem to care when anyone walked up to get closer looks at him. Thus, I shot a lot of photos. We've since assumed that was the male, whom we named Prince Albert in a Box, aka "Al." He's an eastern screech owl (Megascops asio).

A few weeks went by with little activity. Then we spotted an owl roosting again in the late afternoons. We'd walk out to get a better look, and the owl would just disappear, kinda like actor Don Adams used to do in the elevator scene on "Get Smart." My theory: that was Agatha, Al's mate, who was likely sitting on eggs. Like all mothers, she needed a break now and then; hence, her brief respites in the doorway. (During our recent HOT weather, she's taken longer breaks and doesn't mind visitors. That's her in the photo.)

This past week, I visited Cliff Shackelford, who builds Owl Shacks like ours in the carport at his home in Nacogdoches. He told me that he thinks I'm right. Any day now, he said we should be seeing little heads popping up in the doorway. Two or three probably. For seven days, the owlets will poke their heads out, then–poof!–fledge. No more owls in the nesting box. At least, not until next fall, when cold temperatures send Al and Agatha looking for a warm place to roost.

So we're waiting waiting waiting....

In the meantime, I brought home another owl box, which we'll hang on an oak tree on our property. So then Al can have his own digs.

For more information, Owl Shack prices, and bird advice, check out Cliff's website: www.owlshack.com.

P.S. June 12: The last time we saw Agatha was May 27. We never did see any little heads pop up. Cliff said that's unusual. We're hoping the kids fledged completely at night.