On April 27, Mike Bowen reported a conflict between a pair of Tree Swallows 
and a pair of Prothonotaries for the rights to Prothonotary nest box R1 above 
Riley's Lock.  His opinion was the swallows were winning.

To ease the conflict I installed another nest box about 15 feet away on May 
2.  A week later the conflict continued, with both pairs around the box, and 
the female swallow in the original box.  I checked the insides of both boxes and 
there were multiple layers in R1, suggesting both pairs had been at work, but 
no eggs.  There were only shards of nesting material in the new box.  I was 
concerned that the conflict would prevent both pairs from successfully nesting.

Good news: checking today, the Tree Swallow has two eggs in R1 and there is a 
completed warbler next with two eggs in the new box.  However this is a very 
late nesting and I fear that this female will not nest again this year.

Further upstream, R2 has a female sitting tightly on five eggs.  On Monday 
there were also two cowbird eggs.  These were not present today.

R3 has a completed nest and one warbler egg, as it did on Monday.  This 
suggests that the nest has been abandoned for whatever reason.

R4 has had a male singing close by for a couple of weeks, but no nest inside. 
 Shortage of females?

The two boxes at Hughes Hollow had only shards of nesting material on Monday. 
 The box at Violets is completely barren.

There are fewer nesting warblers this year than in any year in five or six.  
Is this an aberration, a cycle, or a downward trend?  After all, "my" birds 
have fledged a large number of youngsters over the last half dozen years.  

Bob Mumford
Darnestown