#2 – Duck, Duck... Squirrel

By Morgan Elburn | May 22, 2026

Spring has sprung in Fairbanks! The ice is melting, trees are blooming, frogs are calling and we have birds nesting. We have completed our second sweep of checking all 181 boxes. This week's sweep went a bit smoother than the first, we quickly learned the quirks of each site, where to watch out for beaver traps, muddy spots that hide thigh deep holes and which boxes are tucked just far enough off trail to question our navigation skills every time. We have also felt our stamina and strength increase. The ladder certainly isn't getting any lighter, but it is getting easier.

The birds are continuing to keep us busy. We currently have 94 occupied boxes, and the numbers are still climbing. Common Goldeneye continue to dominate the boxes with 76 nests so far and we anticipate several more to appear in the next couple weeks. We also observed three bufflehead nests and two common merganser nests. One of the biggest surprises this season has been the boreal owls. We have recorded 11 boreal owl nests, a record breaking number (from last year's 10 nests) and an exciting find during our checks. Proving the boxes are appealing to more than just birds, one ambitious red squirrel has also claimed a box as its own. Beyond the numbers, one of the best parts of this work is watching the season change in real time. Places that were still locked in snow and ice during our first sweep are now full of open water and fresh green growth. Every week the forest looks a little different.

Displeased Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus).

Taking a total head measurement.

Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) eggs!

Spring fieldwork continues to surprise us almost every day. Beyond simply counting nests and eggs, we’ve started witnessing some fascinating and occasionally chaotic wildlife behavior inside the boxes. One thing we have observed is brood parasitism in some of the boxes. This behavior is essentially the avian equivalent to dropping your kid off at daycare and never coming back. The hen will lay their eggs in other hens boxes in hopes that the hosts will incubate and raise the ducklings. The intraspecific brood parasitism (within the same species) between goldeneye is usually difficult to decipher between hens at first glance. Usually, the clues come from the number of eggs in the box and noticeable differences in egg size and shape. A typical Common Goldeneye clutch contains around 7 to 9 eggs, so when we open a box and find something like the 15 egg nest we discovered today, it’s a strong sign that more than one hen has contributed eggs to the nest. The situation becomes much easier to identify between interspecific brood parasitism (within different species). We’ve seen evidence of this between common goldeneye and bufflehead. Bufflehead eggs are a cream colored egg nearly half the size of the goldeneyes pistachio green eggs. Seeing both side by side in the same nest box makes for a pretty incredible field observation.

Poor Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)!

A lot of responsibility for one hen.

One is not like the other...

Thoughts on the home raid:

Not all surprises have been feathery, though. Finding our first Red Squirrel nest box occupant was something straight out of a horror movie. During a box check, we accidentally trapped the squirrel inside for a moment, and suddenly its tiny arm reached out beside the plunger like a zombie claw emerging from a grave. Paired with the piercing squeaks of outrage and panic coming from inside the box, it gave us a bit of a shock before we quickly let it escape. As the season progresses, every sweep seems to bring something unexpected — whether it’s record numbers of Boreal Owls, mysterious extra eggs, or angry squirrels waiting inside a nest box. That unpredictability is part of what makes the field season so exciting.

Thanks for reading and check back for more field updates!

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