Hi Russell,

While I am still in the process of developing my backyard wildlife
sanctuary, I did put up two nestboxes ,last fall, one for Chickadee's &
the other for Downy's. Both a male & female Downy worked on enlarging
the holes on both boxes, There was only 1/8" diameter difference between
the two. The male used both of them as night roosts until sometime in
October, I believe. Haven't seen them since. If anything happens in the
spring, I'll let you know.

Ray

> ----------
> From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney[SMTP:festuca at olywa.net]
> Reply To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 1997 12:38 PM
> To: 'tweeters at u.washington.edu'
> Subject: RE: Nest Box Usage
>
> Russell Link wrote:
> >>I'm interested in communicating with people who can confirm nest
> box
> >>usage by the following birds in WA, OR, and southern B.C: hooded
> >>merganser, common merganser, common goldeneye, barrow's
> >>goldeneye, flicker, piliated woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy
> >>woodpecker.
>
> Russell,
>
> I used to check the 'wood duck' nest boxes at Ankeny NWR and Baskett
> Slough NWR in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. You might want to
> check with the Refuge Biologist at the Wm L Finley NWR office south of
> Corvallis - the refuge staff used to provide the refuge bio with the
> nest-box-check data, so there should be information there for a number
> of species.
>
> I can confirm the use of Hooded Mergansers for nesting, and
> Red-shafted Flickers for roosting, at least.
>
> Other birds I've had nesting in nest boxes have been Wood Duck (of
> course), Western Screech-Owls and Violet-green Swallows.
>
> I can also confirm the use of nest boxes by raccoons (and their
> fleas), honeybees, bald-faced hornets, paper wasps, and at least one
> species of the native bumblebees.
>
> Jon. Anderson
> Olympia, Washington
> festuca at olywa.net
>