Overall, fledging success has benn good, but we have had direct observations of Black Ratsnakes in three of our sixteen boxes, plus an additional box from which all the eggs removed/consumed by an organism unidentified. From this week’s report:
Snakes alive! Yet more Black Ratsnake activity in the boxes. We checked box #7, which was hatching on 26 May, and estimated 9 fledglings. Box #6 had reports of snake activity in the period of 26 May to 2 June. Nevertheless, we found 9 WODU eggs in the box, but they were not yet being incubated. Box #1 now has 14 eggs incubating, with an estimated hatch date of 4 July. And N. and I. found a snake in Box #3. Too much drama.
So we have four remaining boxes with possible activity: #6, #1, #3, and #60 (estimated hatch 24 June).
Let’s do a work day on Sunday, 6 July to cover those four boxes, 8:30 AM as usual. Again, we won’t need to whole team: let me know whether you can come. We’ll try to keep cool.