Not too early at all:  house sparrows are building a nest on a friend's
porch; a robin was seen carrying material this afternoon.  I discovered a
fairly large great blue heron rookery in Muskingum Co. this afternoon - 59
nests with at least 30 great blues in, on and around the nests.

Also of note:  a beautiful male northern harrier being harassed by a
red-tailed hawk.  As for the red taileds, love is definitely in the air - a
pair was doing some kind of a display, or at least that was my
interpretation.  I saw several red-taileds on the drive around the
countryside, previewing for the final big push for OBBA II in Region 60.

Margaret Bowman
Licking Co., Oh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Valencic" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 5:58 PM
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Junco's looking for a place to nest


>I realize it's kind of early to start talking about nesting for birds other
> than owls, but I just went into the horse barn for something and found 2
> Junco's flying around the rafters in the hay loft.  Could they be looking
> to
> start a nest so soon?
>
>
>
> Junco's nest between the bales of hay every year in our hay loft with as
> many as 3 broods being fledged in a season. The earliest they have fledged
> their first brood is May something.  If they start now they will certainly
> break that record.  I would think they would delay nesting were it not for
> this artificial structure that provides so much protection.
>
>
>
> They came in through the stall doors which are opened daily all year
> round,
> no matter how cold or snowy, so they have had ample opportunity to come in
> if they wanted to before today.  We also close these doors each evening
> during the winter.  As a precaution I opened the two loft doors about 3
> inches so they might come-and-go from above as they wish.
>
>
>
> So the question is, should I encourage this early nesting behavior (if
> that
> is what it is) or discourage it by closing them out?  I regret not opening
> those loft doors 4 years ago when a pair of Eastern Phoebe's were showing
> interest in our barn rafters.  It was around Easter that year and we got
> 12
> inches of wet snow that stayed around for 10 days.  The birds were not
> seen
> again after the snow.
>
>
>
> Matt Valencic
>
> Chagrin Falls, OH
>
>
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