Box# 7, near the FAA-weathercamera (Middleton Island, Gulf of Alaska. August 10, 2023).
2023 was the 15th year of the Middleton Island Tree Swallow (TRES) project. Martha, Katelyn, David, Shannon and Scott of the ISRC provided information and photos of the 2023 breeding season. This is, I hope, a correct interpretation and presentation of their findings.
Distribution of the TRES on Middleton Island in 2023:
7 boxes contained (largely completed?) nests. However, box#5's contents (shown below) appeared a bit strange. A lot of moss is used, something I've never seen the TRES do on Middleton. I believe this could be the work of the island's often abundant Pacific Wrens Troglodytes pacificus. Perhaps these have found their way to the TRES real estate market? I'll therefore count 6 occupied nest boxes in 2023, by the TRES.
Suspected Pacific Wren construction in Box#5 (Middleton Island, August 10, 2023).
Shannon wrote: 'It was exceptionally damp/rainy/foggy in 2023, but it seems the TRES were happy with that'. Indeed, the TRES seems to have had a good summer on Middleton.
The first TRES sighting in 2023 was on 18 May by Sam D., who was watching for them.
More good news: in spring 2023, two new nest boxes were installed! These replace the lost #1 and 2. The new and very fancy Cedar boxes were provided by Audubon Alaska, but could unfortunately not yet be opened for inspection or photographed.
Little is known about eggs and fledging. This could only be determined for a few nest (based on information and/or photos). Breeding results for boxes 12, 14 & 20 remains unknown; these at least contained nests.
Obvious signs of fledged young in box 4 (Middleton Island, August 10, 2023).
A single egg was found in box# 18, a case of 'egg-dumping' (Middleton Island, August 10, 2023). Like this nest box, box#19 (located within the ISRC camps site) is also constructed from white PVC-planks. If the provided information is correct, 2023 is the fist year the TRES occupied and raised chicks in a nest box made from this material. Unfortunately no photos are available.
This is box#19 on August 7, 2022. "Don't be fooled, it's not real wood... It's PVC!"
I thank the 2023 ISRC crewmembers, who, despite their physical struggle this summer, gathered and provided information and photos of yet another interesting TRES-summer out at Middleton. And a surprise came: Audubon Alaska granted ISRC $500 USD to purchase 10 new cedar nest boxes. Chris Rye recommended a new model of nest box and Glenn Foote rapidly built and shipped boxes in time for the ISRC-crew to get them to the island in spring 2023. I thank them all very much for their work and participation!
