[SBB] update: Pgymy Nuthatches, Barn Owl in Menlo Park

Sorry that this update couldn't come sooner. Last Wed. am (4.26), we saw two Pgymy Nuthatches trying frantically -- and to no avail -- to get into their nest cavities in the palm tree on Laurel Ave., Menlo Park [we reported seeing two pairs of the nuthatches at that palm on 4.25]: a male House Sparrow (possibly two) blocked access to the hole and swooped down onto the nuthatches every time they arrived at the hole entrance. We wanted to keep checking; saw no nuthatches or sparrows two days later; then, on Sun. 4.30, we saw House Sparrow nesting activity at two holes in the tree: males carrying nesting materials, female inside entrance of one cavity. No sign of the nuthatches.

We'd like to know whether the nuthatches have any chance of starting over this year.

Also on the morning of 4.26, a Laurel Ave. resident who lives very close to the palm where the Barn Owls were nesting informed us that he found the baby (who must have fledged earlier in the week -- we heard its vocalizations from the nest cavity after midnight on

Sun, 4. 23) injured and bleeding, late in the evening of 4.25, in his backyard and turned it over to Peninsula Humane. Update yesterday: the owl had to be euthanized because of the severity of its injuries.

Tate and Curtis Snyder