Hi everyone! We had a really hot summer which probably made it difficult to check boxes. Now that it’s cooling down again we can all get into our next round of box checks!
Here are some updates on what we’ve been up to:
We’re right in the middle of another round of box-checking for the Fall-Winter seasons. Some of our boxes got lost due to trees falling from the heavy storms we had this year so we’ll have to work on getting those replaced.
This a reminder to also check your boxes and submit your data to our Survey 123 app! When putting in your box ID be sure to include the state as well! For example, if I had box 14 in Massachusetts I would write my box number as MA14.
Thank you to those who have been submitting their data and being so consistent with checks and uploads! We love seeing how your nest boxes are doing.
You were all very responsive to us sending you an email reminder for your box checks a while ago. Thank you to those who responded and submitted their data after receiving the email, it’s greatly appreciated!
Shalissa made some changes to our survey123 app recently and recorded a new video about how to submit your data using the app. You can check out the new video here.
C.J. and Shalissa presented to four 3rd grade classes in Beverly. Each class will be monitoring a nest box with their teacher.
The very next week, C.J. and Shalissa then asked Northeastern students in a science communication class to imagine being 3rd graders and we presented about the project to them at the 3rd grade level. It was so great to answer questions and hear their thoughts on the project.
We enjoy speaking with children and while we may need to zoom in, we would love to collaborate with more teachers and other groups!
Here’s some information on what we’ve been planning:
Recently we’ve been collecting and analyzing the hook and loop stickers from our boxes and participant boxes. We’re learning that using the hook and loop stickers to collect hair samples is not the most efficient method for collecting hair samples.
We’re currently working on a method for participants to send us any nests or fecal matter that they find in their boxes during checks. This most likely won’t take place until the Spring/ Summer season but we’re asking participants to avoid emptying out their boxes until we can get this system active and running. We’ve been getting a lot more hair samples from checking our own nests so we’re hoping this will be a more efficient method of obtaining hair and fecal samples from participant nests. We’ll send out another newsletter when we’re ready for collection.