Last week it was a red katydid outbreak. This week we have a cowbird intrusion. Nature is endlessly fascinating and this is another example.

When we checked our nestbox #4 last week, it was empty except for a lone bluebird egg which had not developed from the previous brood. We only recently learned that you should remove the old nest so we had left the nest and egg alone. This week, during a bird species survey with my friends and bird experts, Jesse Huth and Jaci Kroupa, we checked the box as we hiked past. The old blue bird egg was gone and in its place were five small, whitish eggs. Jesse identified them as cowbird eggs. He removed the eggs and destroyed them. We looked around the box to see if we could find the blue bird egg, but weren’t able to.