Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Wood thrushes at White Haven

My summer crew found a wood thrush nest on a forested property between Mountain Top and White Haven, PA.  We used a GoPro to capture an image of the three eggs then deployed a camera. 



The camera burned through over 5000 images. Most of them are the female just looking the nestlings. There's a heavy gypsy moth outbreak and it looks like they're bring them to the nestlings. Worms are another favorite (note that all worms in the area are invasive). Happen to capture a very image of both parents are the nest. 

About 4000 images into our monitoring the camera is bumped and two nestlings disappear. Unfortunately our camera doesn't catch it. So it goes. We did, however, happen to catch an image of a mouse (I think!) at the nest. White-footed mice are common nest predators on eggs - not so sure on nestlings. Whatever it was it bumped the camera so I suspect it was one of the classic mesopredators - a raccoon, possum, or skunk. 


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