8 replies to this topic

[bluebirdlover]

A nesting pair of bluebirds in my yard! They just finished their nest a couple days ago and there is now one egg in it! I'm still trapping HOSPs in my other 2 boxes but not as often. I'm feeding about 100 or more mealworms a day. The bb's have compition from the nuthatches and the redbellied woodpecker, as well as the titmice. So they are learning if they don't get the worms as soon as I put them out, the nuthatches will bomb them and take over. It's so fun to think I may see bb babies in a few weeks!

[zoutedrop]

outstanding, wish everyone put in the work that you are doing

keep us posted on the progress

[bluebirdlover]

_{As of Thursday there are 5 eggs and she is sitting on the nest. The bluebirds come to the worms as soon as I call them.
The male is less afraid than the female. He'll talk to me
They also built a "dummy nest" in another nest box so that the house sparrows don't bother the real nest. They even pretend to defend it. The house sparrows think they win, and sit inside the box 'chinking" in victory. Then I trap them. We have had some starlings hanging out. I chase them away when I see them. If I'm right, the eggs could start hatching on memorial day or a couple days later. I have named the male (blue) berry white and the female is betty white ! hahaahaha}

[cwj2323]

Wow, I didn't know bluebirds did such a thing. That's great. And congratulations on the bluebirds. Our HOSP trapping has been unsuccessful lately. We got so many early on and they've gotten too smart for us. I am hoping those young ones get too curious for their own good.

[sailormom64]

That is too cute, berry and betty! Glad things are going well. My pair of BB's have been nest building and fighting off a mockingbird, I haven't seen the mockingbird in 2 days since the male and female double teamed him and sent him away from their box. So should be getting some eggs soon! I haven't tried mealworms yet... I have wanted to and your story certainly is inspiring! Post some baby pics for us soon!

[bluebirdlover]

I will post pics as soon as I can. I do not want to disturb them too much right now.

[bluebirdlover]

My bluebirds sat on 5 eggs and 2 hatched & fledged. They left the nest 2 days ago and are up in the trees somewhere. We saw one way up in the tree and another was somewhere in the back tree. So far Berry & Betty have not brought them to the worm bowl but are still taking them worms. I only got a couple really bad pics when the babies were 6-10 days old.
Berry & betty are now building a nest in another box in our yard. I'll wait a few days to check for eggs. We are having 3 trees cut down which I'm sure is disturbing things. Also, we have a pair of black capped chickadees nesting in the PVC box. They have 6 eggs and I'm guessing they'll be hatched in a week or so.

[sailormom64]

So glad to hear bluebirdlover! The pair I had nesting in the nestingbox abandoned the nest, and a new pair began building over top of the nest with 4 eggs in it. (sigh) but good news because the new pair now have 4 eggs and she is incubating, should begin hatching in a day or two, so excited! Did the other three eggs hatch at all? It is so hot down here in SC and my female sticks her head out of the hole just about all day long panting.
Good luck with the chickadees, I just love chickadees! I am going to try to build my own chickadee pvc box for next spring. Been looking at the plans.

[bluebirdlover]

The 3 eggs were never fertile apparently. The new nest in the other box still has no eggs in it and they don't really seem to be interested now. The parents are still around our yard and coming for worms for the babies but still havent brought the babies to meet me . We are having trees cut down like I said so I think they will probably wait for the noise to go away before settling back in somewhere. I don't check the chickadees because the PVC house is so hard to monitor. You have to twist it off to look inside and I'm afraid I wont be able to get it back on correctly. My husband has done it twice but I don't like him too. I'll probably let him check it again by mid week next week. By then the eggs should be hatched and we will be able to count heads!