Blue bird boxes: How To!

Blue birds are awesome! However, in recent years, bluebird numbers have declined in response to loss of habitat to development, use of pesticides and herbicides, competition with introduced house sparrows and starlings, and reforestation of farmlands. People maintain bluebird boxes in order to provide habitat for their fragile population and to gain an awesome opportunity to spy into their world. If you’d like to build your own nest box, here are the directions!

Materials:

– 3/4” untreated pine or exterior plywood are best. (Boards should be untreated and painted/sealed on the outside surfaces only to prevent exposing birds to chemicals inside the box.)

– 1 1/2″ wood nails or screws (staples shouldn’t be used because they may cause sharp edges on the boxes that may be harmful to young birds)

– a fence row, telephone pole, tree or 8′ metal pole to mount the box to

– predator deterrent (24″ stovepipe wrapped around the base of the tree, grease placed on the pole, or conical metal baffles under the box).

The Unwelcome Guest Photo © Ms. Pixie

(These are photos from a great bird resource website called NestWatch.org)

Dimensions:

– Entry hole: 1 1/2″ for Eastern and Western blue birds, 1 9/16″ for Mountain blue birds.

– Floor: 4 1/2″-5 1/2″ square and placed 8″ below the entry hole, recessed inside the sidewalls to prevent rain water from leaking into the seams.

– Roof: should overhang 2″ on each side to protect from rain and sun, and should, higher in the back, lower in the front.

– Gaps: provide gaps in floor and sides for ventilation and drainage

– Score: the wall inside the box below in the entry hole should be scored deeply to provide a toe-hold for emerging young birds.

– Access: Side or front should be left free to swing open for easy access when monitoring or cleaning nest boxes. Access door can be held in place with a removable nail or screw.

Placement:

– Boxes should always be at least 100′ away from brush and cover where predators and competing birds would have easy access to the box. Blue birds prefer fence rows, open farm fields and grasslands.

– Boxes should be mounted 5′ above the ground on a tree, pole, pipe or fencepost.

– If you find that you still have problems with competing birds, such as house wrens and tree swallows, blue bird boxes can be paired 15-25′ apart from one another to provide housing for both the competitor and blue birds.

– If you have several boxes, individuals or pairs should be placed at least 100 yards away from each other to prevent blue birds from competing with each other for neighboring territories.

– Nest box setup should be completed in time for nesting to begin (February in the South, March in the North).

I hope you enjoy your nest boxes! They are easy and fun to maintain.

-Taniya Bird Nerd Fatticci, OEC

Blue Bird Nerd

2013 has been an exceptional year for Eastern blue birds at the OEC! I am currently the proud grandmother of 15 blue bird hatchlings, 7 pale blue eggs, 1 flying squirrel and 6 brown-speckled cream eggs from a random Carolina chickadee nesting in a blue bird box. I am eagerly watching the nests as the chicks hatch, develop feathers, gradually turn grey-blue, open their eyes, and get ready to learn how to fly.

Starting in February, staff members here at the OEC began repairing, painting, and relocating blue bird boxes. I read in severeal articles that pairing blue bird boxes 15-25′ apart would help provide habitat for blue birds while preventing interferance from competitors such as house wrens and tree swallows. I took this into consideration when relocating boxes. I also relocated boxes that had been inactive for 4 + seasons, and others that had a history of predation or inacivity due to a close proximity to a woodline or brush cover. Once the 15 boxes were up, we began monitoring them each week and waited for the arrival of blue birds along our fence rows, in our garden and horse pasture. 

Before the birds arrived, a flying squirrel took up residence in one of our boxes and has kept me company on my weekly visits to his nest box. He often peers out at me from inside his nest of Spanish moss and dry grasses, if he hasn’t scampered out of his box to watch me from a limb up higher on his pine tree. The first time I saw him, he leapt out at a co-worked and we both nearly jumped out of our skins.

During the first week in March, blue birds began perching in our garden and along the fencerows of 3188. Staff members eagerly reported their sightings and I watched with interest as nest material started showing up in some of our boxes. Long strands of dry pine needles formed the bottom of the nests and over the week gradually gave way to fully-formed, dry grass cup nests lined with bits of fuzz and fluff.

Midway through March, baby-blue, marble-sized oval eggs started showing up in the nest boxes. Occasionally I would open a box to find a mother blue bird faithfully incubating her eggs, which provided me with an amazing view of such an awesome bird!

Then finally, the last week of March, the first round of tiny, pink hatchlings appeared in the nest. I hadn’t anticipated how excited I would be to find these truly ugly little things for the first time, but there I was, gaping over how cool it was to have taken a part in the life cycle of these tiny birds.

And now, the first week in April, I have one nest of chicks with fully developed feathers and eyes wide open preparing to fledge this week, two nests scheduled to fledge next week, three eggs hatching sometime today and two nests with brand new hatchlings, fluffy-headed with their eyes closed and mouths gaping. This has been a remarkably rewarding project to work on this year. I have shown my students the nests as they develop and change between the weeks and my excitement seems to rub off on them, too.

I recommend building bird boxes of your own. It is truly rewarding and provides much-needed habitat to fragile populations of some really cool animals. Following this post I will provide plans for buildling your own boxes.

From one nature nerd to another (hopefully), thanks for reading!

-Taniya Fatticci, OEC

Anolis carolinensis: Territorial Fighters at the OEC

An epic battle of nature happened right here at the OEC the afternoon of Friday, March 22. Two male Carolina anoles, also known as green anoles, fought for territory on the fence between the main office and the O-Dome. For over forty-five minutes, these lizards were so concentrated on their fight that they let several small insects scramble past them, as well as let staff members become a close, captivating audience to their fighting ritual.

Students at the OEC often call these green anoles chameleons, and it was very apparent why in the fight witnessed. Though these anoles are not closely related to chameleons, they are able to change their colors from an intense green to a dark brown, and every combination of these colors in between. They can change because of temperature, emotion, and light quality. This afternoon, the cause was emotion, and that emotion was aggression.

The two anoles displayed a fighting ritual including shows of both assertion and challenge. To show their assertion, the anoles did head bobs, which looked like push-ups, over and over. They would also extend their dewlap, a large flap of skin under the throat, and a darkened area behind their eye, called an eyespot, formed. The anoles would slowly circle around each other, doing these push-ups, in an almost dance-like movement reminiscent of boxers in a boxing ring. The anoles puffed themselves up and turn their body so their opponent could see the side profile, possibly trying to scare the other one away by showing how big and powerful they were.

The two anoles were so focused on the other and neither one was willing to back down from the fight, as they are very territorial creatures. One anole stayed green the whole time, while the other turned a shade of brown hardly different than the fence post on which it fought. After circling each other over and over, one taking higher spot on the fence post and then the other, the two anoles finally made contact and bit each other, interlocking their jaws for several minutes at a time, as seen from the pictures below. After each interlock was over, the anoles would retreat a few inches from each other and rest, breathing hard, as if they were two fighters in their respective corners.

In the last observed round of their match, the two anoles again interlocked their jaws, with each of the top parts of their mouths jutted up in the other’s lower part of their mouths. With swift movements, they split apart, dashing away. One jumped to the fence rail below while the other raced to the fence post as the apparent winner of the battle. There were no more push-ups, no more challenge displays, and that day’s epic match was over, with a certain winner.

So, for Carolina anoles here at the OEC, the fence post is the place to be on a warm, bright Friday afternoon, and that’s pretty neat.

-Joan Williams

New Teacher Reflections

It’s the night before students again arrive at the OEC, the eve to another semester of the amazing outdoor experiential learning that happens here. As an ACL, or associate camp leader, I should be packing a bag of clothes and toiletries to bring over to my cabin, charging batteries, and reviewing lesson plans. I should be relaxing with roommates/co-workers/friends. Instead, I’m mulling over the past five months, the time I have been lucky enough to be a member of the OEC community. Instead, I am writing this blog post.

I wanted to contribute to the Piney Woods Press weeks ago, but couldn’t quite narrow down my thoughts into one topic. I wanted to incorporate everything! Some things I’ve learned so far at the OEC, though, have been so huge. I’ve learned themes of lives and new perspectives, not just rigging a fishing pole (though I’ve learned how to do that too). I came up with the perfect solution to my massive problem: a list! With a list, I didn’t really have to narrow anything down. I also asked fellow new staff members to contribute what they’ve learned as well, a collaborative effort to share our insights. Let us share our pearls of wisdom gained in the first semester here at the OEC.

Don’t let moments of awe and natural wonder pass in the company of children. Those small moments matter.

What is simple or mundane to you could mean the world of difference to a kid who has never taken a walk in the woods before. Take those moments to invoke/inspire wonder. Always.

Show kids it’s cool to be curious.

Don’t forget to play.

Kids like gross stuff. Poop, vomit, and dead stuff are great attention-getters.

–        Taniya F.

Maturity

–        Brian McD.

The true beauty of nature is not always found in the woods.

Unstructured play time in nature is just as beneficial as structured learning.

Even the kid who doesn’t seem to be paying attention is actively learning.

CP’s are extremely necessary.

You can learn a lot about life by watching the horses; they eat, drink, stick together and are strong enough to walk through “the poop” and come out with their heads held high.

A tennis ball is a versatile teaching tool.

To a guy from Ohio, deer are pests that threaten to damage your car. To a child from Houston, they are magical forest creatures!

The imaginations of 5^th graders never cease to amaze me.

–        Andy K.

There is a place for everyone in a new community full of diverse backgrounds, interests, intellects, and emotions.

If you walk into the bathhouse once and it smells like poop, that’s fine. But walk in an hour later to that same bathhouse and it still smells that same degree of poopiness, check the floor for brown spots, and grab the Simple Green.

As much as the students are learning at the OEC, I know that I am learning more through looking at nature through their eyes. It is an amazing place of discovery, including self-discovery.

The most important thing to get across to students is the feeling of gaining knowledge or discovery. The feeling when finding something out is a feeling worth chasing down, and I want all the OEC students to leave wanting to chase down more discoveries.

I LOVE reading aloud to children.

Nap time is very necessary.

Teaching is a cumulative skill. That being said, there is no finish line in teaching, and there is no such thing as being over-prepared. And I am so glad Carol is there to flood me with resources.

–        Joan W.

With the past semester behind me, and the looming future of the OEC being flooded by Houston city 5^th graders in front of me, I can now finish this post, and continue to enjoy every moment of discovery, learning, self-reflection, and awe of the natural world that the HISD Outdoor Education Center has to offer.

Heading South –

As the  colorful leaves of an East Texas fall float to the ground, a lone Monarch butterfly is heading south.  Most of these migratory insects have already passed through Texas on their way to their wintering grounds in the mountains of central Mexico. Some will have traveled a straight line distance of up to 2,200 miles from their summer homes in the northeastern US and Canada. It is estimated that because they don’t fly in a direct line many may fly twice this distance in their trek to overwinter in the Oyamel Fir forests in the states of Michoacan and Mexico.

Why Mexico?  Yes, they do have great food, beautiful beaches, and wonderful people.  But the Monarchs  prefer, almost exclusively, 13 “sky islands” of forests at an average elevation of 8,200 feet.  These relict boreal forests provide the conditions necessary to the overwintering butterflies, including moderately cold temperatures that promote torpor but are not lethal, and warming during the day to allow activity (but not too much excessively energy-draining activity). There is also enough humidity to prevent fires and desiccation of the butterflies and a rich understory with a diversity of winter wildflowers for nectar.

The  butterfly reserves in Mexico provide human visitors the opportunity to experience this spectacular natural phenomenon. It also is a source of income for the local residents who depend on the tourism money to supplement their subsistence farming. These magnificent fliers are depending on the conservation efforts of citizens of three nations to ensure that future generations can revel in the wonder of their lives.

–Carol Miserlian

Perspective – Mary Stringer

Sometimes you look at your life and wonder, “How did I get here?” Often times that question is posed when things are going every way other than how you envisioned. You ask yourself, “Where did I go wrong? What were those poor choices I made when I thought I wasn’t choosing anything at all?“

If we are lucky, however, we occasionally get the opportunity to look back in splendid wonder at how our lives have progressed. I feel like I’m in that rare and lucky time of my life when the crayon I color my perspective in reads Rose on the label.

If you had asked me five years ago, even three years ago, where I would be now I might have told you working outside, but I wanted it to be at a National Park. I might have said I saw myself as a teacher, but I envisioned “Dr.” in front of my last name. Things being as they are, it turns out I was only wrong about the easiest thing to get wrong: the details. Instead of in the well-known, over-crowded parking lot for RVs that many of our National Parks have been reduced to, I work among the East Texas pines that I have grown to know as my home. I am a teacher, but my students
can’t accumulate crippling amounts of debt for their desire to learn…yet.

I stumbled upon outdoor education just as I stumbled upon my ability to not only affectively teach fifth-graders but to also act as mother hen to anywhere from 8-12 ten- and eleven-year old girls. Like many of life’s greatest gifts, I had to trip over them in order to find them. I saw myself in a National Park because I wanted to leave Texas. I wanted to see something I had never seen before. I wanted to experience an adventure like I see through my students’ eyes each week. The wanderlust sparkles though as they see trees taller than they’ve ever seen or more stars in the sky than they ever imagined could exist. Just imagine how their peepers open when you say that’s not even the half of it.

It’s true some students are less effected because they have been to those National Parks I wanted to work at. They realize when they ride the school bus for two hours that they are no longer in Houston. The sparkle in their eyes is duller in comparison to those students who think they are still in the ever-sprawling metropolitan of Houston even after they have driven down the two-lane road that dead-ends at the Outdoor Education Center in Trinity, Texas, some 80 miles away. For some that is the farthest they have ever been. For some that is the farthest they will ever go.

I mentioned earlier how I wanted to leave Texas, and while I still long for adventure, I no longer feel like I have to live in some other place to achieve it. My desire to move out of state was based off my want to choose my circumstances.

I was never consulted on where I was to be born and raised. Like many youth, I felt getting away from everything I’d ever known was what I needed to grow. However, while living under these pines I have experienced what if feels like to stand strong with some roots under you. Changing my perspective of those roots unintentionally but gratefully changed my circumstances. Staying in East Texas after graduation from Sam Houston State University has allowed me to reap the benefits from an established root system, however juvenile.

Working at the OEC I have gained even more of an appreciation for my state of affiliation. I presume that knowledge of a place breeds respect. I’ve learned so much in just one school year at the OEC about nature, kids, people, life, responsibility, silliness, and the importance of a nap. Some of that acquired knowledge was more than likely recall from the depths of my grade school mind, while other bits of golden nuggets have opened my eyes to my role as a human on this planet. While I’m not asking my students or cabin chicklings to put on their water wings so they can stay afloat in the deep end with me while I ponder the meaning of life, I do strive to provide for them an experience that allows them to find themselves in one way or another. If one kid leaves with a broader perspective on life — the supposed impossibilities, the importance of their
individuality, or their ability to change their circumstances while in the same place — I feel I have done my job.

And to tell you the truth, I think I prefer Miss Mary over Dr. Stringer.

Mary Stringer

Welcome!

Hello, folks, and welcome to our OEC staff blog! As the 2012-13 school year shifts into full gear, we will do our best to keep you updated on the happenings here on the shores of Lake Livingston. Expect photos, stories, and perhaps the occasional piece of insight on nature or education.

For those unfamiliar with our program, check out our main webpage! You can also find us on Facebook.

To start, here’s a handful of photos from our 2011-12 school year, courtesy of our own Paul Scheible:

We arrived to an extremely low Lake Livingston last fall due to Texas’ historic drought of 2011.

Teacher Specialist Amy Blonn in action.

Double-crested cormorants and American white pelicans on Lake Livingston. After the dry fall, heavy rains in the Dallas area brought much-needed water down the Trinity River to our lake.

An American alligator enjoys a sunny spring day on the bank of Caney Creek.

ACL Aaron Benator leads students in a springtime wildflower lesson on the side of FM-3188.

OEC Staff 2011-12.