eNews October 2024

New Website Launched

This month we’re proud to share our new website with you! In addition to a more modern look and feel, we have added Spanish translations of core content areas (with more to come soon). We hope you find the experience improved, and we welcome you to submit any feedback using our ‘contact us’ form. Go check it out!

Rest assured, most of our content is still present, though it may have shifted location (for example, “Your Data” is now “My Nests”). That said, please note that our public photo gallery is on hold temporarily as we explore more efficient ways to store and manage photos. NestWatchers can still submit photos of nests during data entry while logged in. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to fill out our ‘contact us’ form; it conveniently brings in your browser version and username so we can start troubleshooting right away.

New Chapter in Ecuador

Our newest NestWatch Chapter is the Museo de Zoología, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, in Ecuador! This is the third chapter to join us from South America.

Led out of the university in Loja by Leonardo Ordóñez-Delgado, the chapter hopes to work with researchers to systemize nest record data collection via the NestWatch platform and use the data they’ve collected to study local breeding birds. Welcome! 

Do Birds Use ‘Scarecrows’?

Humans use scarecrows to scare away birds, but do birds also use scare tactics to repel predators from their nests? Our latest research suggests that they do, and NestWatchers may have even witnessed it in action. Check out our blog to find out how some birds try to frighten away ghouls (predators) from the nest.

A First for Us

We see a lot of nest box critters here at NestWatch, but this juvenile five-lined skink was a new one for us! Submitted by Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland, this photo shows the juvenile skink in a nest box along with some ants. The nest box had been unoccupied for a while, so the lizard was not a nest predator. More likely, it was sheltering and eating insects that were also using the nest box.

This adds to a growing list of non-bird animals that NestWatchers have spotted in nest boxes, including frogs, bats, mice, squirrels, and untold numbers of invertebrates. Part of the fun of nest monitoring is encountering other wildlife along the way!