A Bad Year for Bluebirds

When I left for Myrtle Beach two weeks ago the bluebirds had four eggs in thier nest. It was the second try at a brood this summer. The first batch of eggs were simply abandoned for some reasons; she never really incubated them, and after waiting almost a month (they're suppose to take 17-19 days) I cleaned the box out and threw the nest and eggs away.

On June 21 momma bluebird had just begun sitting on the nest and we were looking forward to batch of babies sometime in around July 8 or 9. We've had baby bluebirds for five of the last six years, and one year we had two broods.

But the nest was empty when we got home on the 28th.

Since the bluebird box was latched, I figure a human took the eggs. One of my neighbors tells me a neighborhood boy (age 8 or 9) spent some time in our yard while we were gone. But I suppose there are other possible solutions to the mystery of the eggs that disappeared...

Tree Swallows - Day 13

First, one picture from Day 12:



Now Day 13 (today):









You can watch a brief video from day 12 here.

Tree Swallows - Day Eleven (and a bluebird egg)

I wasn't home to take pictures on Thursday and Friday. Cheryl took these two for me on day nine:





Here are pictures for today, day 11 in the life of the baby tree swallows...









The bluebird house has a nest in it again. You'll recall that our bluebirds abandoned a clutch of four eggs in May after a cold snap. We now have one egg again.

Bluebirds, Coffee Makers, Etc

Our annual bluebirds are back. They've been around for a few weeks. But last weekend there was nothing in the birdhouse and this weekend we have a full nest and four eggs.

This morning Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird are explaining to a group of tree swallows that they'll just have to live somewhere else. We've put up a second house. The two houses are about 100 feet apart. The tree swallows have ook in it. I don't know of the Bluebirds will tolerate a family a tree swallows that close...

In the past six years the Bluebirds have nested in our bird house five times and the tree swallows have succeeded in holding on it it just once.

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I retired a coffee maker this morning . Maybe I should say "fired." We've been using Proctr Silas coffee maker because they are sold here in town and are cheap enough to be almost disposable. But they start off making a pot of coffee in about 15 minutes and they get slower and slower. The maker I retired today took 48 minutes to make its last pot of coffee. We'll see how long the new Black &Decker coffee maker lasts.

My cough is almost gone. It's been almost gone for a week or more. But it still goes through short but troubling moments of intensity that leave me heaving like a cat with furballs. Hope I get rid of this soon.

Bye Bye Birdie

Our bluebirds flew today. The five babies are gone. I cleaned the box out, so we'll see if we get another nest...

This Year's Baby Bluebirds

I mentioned on April 27 that we had our bluebirds back. The egg count eventually rose to five, but I can only count three hatchlings without moving them around (which I don't want to do).

Last year I think the first set of babies left the nest around the second of June. That's about a week away and this year's kids look almost ready for that.

Mom and Dad bluebird have been very busy feeding the babies. We watch them fly hither and thither in search of protein for the little ones.

We'll see when they actually fly. Last year we cleaned the box out and they laid a second set of eggs. Something climbed the post, opened the latch, and took the eggs. So this year I've added the bungee cord around the box to prevent that...

The Bluebirds are Back

We saw the bluebirds for the first time this year on Wednesday morning, just before we left for Georgia. I looked in the box this morning and they've been busy. Since Wednesday they've built a nest and momma bird has laid three blue eggs.

Last year's baby birds were born in late May.

This is the fourth time in the last five years that we've had Eastern Bluebirds in the box...

This Year's Baby Bluebirds

The bluebirds were spared the devastation of our recent hailstorm. Their nest is in a box on a fence post, so they fared better than the orioles. This is the third time in four years that we've had a pair of bluebirds in this house. There was a screaming match about a month ago when the swallows that occupied it one year showed back up and decided to try and claim it after the bluebirds had built a nest. The swallows lost. Momma bluebird laid five eggs. I can't decide from this picture whether there are five babies or not. We had a hard frost after the eggs were laid...