We appreciate every single morning that we wake up to this backyard habitat PARADISE that borders a 250 acre nature preserve! So when a neighbor gifted us with a homemade bluebird nest box (BB1) we mounted it... SHHH!... and never monitored it. It was mounted too high, over our heads and is nailed shut.
**** THE BAD NEWS **** We know our neighbor meant well, but after reading and learning much THIS WEEK I am horrified to realize how he could be creating more problems since allowing house sparrows to nest in HIS BOX for years thereby unknowingly expanding this invasive population. I'll be speaking with him to rectify this immedately!
**** VERY GOOD NEWS **** As luck would have it, our box has supported bluebirds 2-3 times a season for almost 10 YEARS! Nevertheless, we will be buying proper boxes and following mounting instructions to the LETTER beginning this fall!
And now for the Birth Day Miracle & the reason for this long post: (shame on us again) We have had a deck-mounted nest box (BB2) for 5 years with no interest. Due to a resident black bear, I had to remove the nearby birdfeeders for the very first time in June and VOILA a pair of Bluebirds began nestbuilding. Since nesting birds don't want to be near a busy birdfeeder, I'm quite sure this is why they decided to, very unexpectedly, move in to this improperly mounted box! YIKES! We are hoping for a happy ending although I have learned that there are many failures along the way to success. So we will happily take this one-day-at-a-time!
June 30 ~ 2 eggs.
July 2 ~ 4 eggs & incubation period begins.
July 15 ~ Note white marks on 1 egg HOURS before hatching.
July 17/Day 1 ~ BIRTH DAY!
Posts
3 comments:
Thanks so much for sharing your photos. Bluebirds are an all time fav of mine. What a beautiful discovery! Hope all is well with them! I recently spotted two "new to me" birds, an Indigo Bunting -(oh so gorgeous) and Red Winged Blackbird-such lovely critters!
Vicki, how are they doing? Helping Bluebirds along is a challenge but so worth it.
We have Bluebirds in my community but I haven't erected nesting boxes yet. We've been here almost three years and I plan to have a few up by next February. Unfortunately, HOSP arrived this winter. I'm so disgusted about it. They ruined a Carolina Wren nest on my front porch a few months ago! But, I'll try anyway and be vigilant.
We have a Wildlife Habitat on the college campus where I work and we've erected five boxes. Three broods have fledged safely and two more are on the way! Bluebirds are magical.
I live on a 1/3 acre lot with great birds but this summer has been depressing - too many grackles, starlings, and pigeons. LOL! You are SO DARN fortunate to live on a migrant path :o) I envy you.
Mary
Hi,
I'm Alisha from Wowzio, and I'm excited to tell you about our new widget platform that helps bloggers increase readership by providing engaging widgets containing your blog's rich content. You can check out widgets customized for your blog here:
Wowzio Widgets for your Blog
I wanted to reach out to you to ask for your feedback on these widgets (feel free to install them on your blog, if you feel they are a good fit). I'm sorry for leaving this message via a comment, it's not at all our intent to spam you ( which is why i'm leaving this comment on an older post and you can always remove this comment ). Again, we would love to hear your feedback.
Thanks,
Alisha Wright
alisha.wright1@gmail.com
Post a Comment