May... Might... MITES!

You already met my 'large' critters of interest; European starlings.

Yes I said large. Since the other little bug(-gers) I'm looking at are red fowl mites Red Fowl Mites. A world wide pest in both poultry farms and wild bird populations. Today and yesterday I experienced the most adverse effects possible of the little creatures.

Fowl mites are blood feeders, and they were so numerous in one nest box that they presumable teased away Momma-bird. Leaving the chicks foodless and starving. Today we found the last two chicks dead out of a clutch of five. (It's tough, but studying things also means letting thing go its course allas.)

On this photograph you see only a part of the bottom side of a nest box lid. There were literally thousand of this little red dots crawling around on it. Not to mention in the nest box itself. Still bloated with blood from their last meal.

Not really the nicest site to see, but certainly part of the big picture.