Keeping tabs on your local wildlife is an important task for the naturalist.  Take note of the locations of nests of all kinds.

The discovery of a goshawk nest high in an aspen is an exciting event.  This real estate is in high demand and I know it’s just a matter of time (1-8 years) before it will be active again.  Perhaps by another pair of northern goshawks, or maybe large owls like the great horned or even great grays.  Owls do not build nests, but use natural cavities, the bowled tops of broken snags, or any large, vacant nest built by a hawk, raven, or heron, etc.

Knowledge of large raptor nests, such as this one built by northern goshawks, can help locating rare great gray owls.

Locating a black spruce snag with numerous abandoned northern flicker nesting cavities is an important find.  Checking the snag annually can lead to photo opportunities. Abandoned woodpeckers nesting cavities provide homes for a diverse assortment of wildlife species.  In Interior Alaska most woodpecker cavities are excavated by northern flickers and northern three toed woodpeckers.  Vacant flickers nesting cavities are often taken over by red and flying squirrels.  They simply add grass, sphagnum moss or if near human structures, fiberglass insulation.   Boreal owls, bufflehead ducks to tree swallows find the shelter and security these cavities provide perfect for raising a family of their own.  Female Barrow’s goldeneye ducks somehow manage to squeeze into flicker holes that have been enlarged by squirrels.  Even flickers often prefer remodeling an old hole to starting from scratch.

The smaller nesting cavities chiseled out by northern three toed woodpeckers are suitable for voles, boreal and blackcappe chickadees.

Boreal owl roosts in a cavity constructed by northern flickers.

A red backed vole has taken up winter residency in a long-billed marsh wren nest.