Bird Watching: Starting Bluebird thread #6, 1 by 2dCousinDave

2dCousinDave wrote:
Sorry I have not posted until now. I have several excuses. First, I had a 4:00 p.m. dinner appointment with DW, and dared not cancel. Second, since I got back I have been trying to sort through the pictures I took, which number nearly 2,000. I am not yet finished but it's getting late, so let me get started, even though this may be clumsy.

Well, the best news is that they did fledge on schedule today (day 17), and all successfully (I think), despite the weather and a lot of bird activity in the yard. All of these departures tend to be unique and unpredictable and today's were no exception.

I got up early and was surprised to see one of the fledglings peeking out when I first looked out toward the nestbox about 7:00 this morning. I have found that this peeking is a sure sign they are ready to go. I used three cameras, and because of the rainy, overcast sky, set their ISO's at or near max, so I could get the brightest possible image and the fastest shutter speed I could. Throughout the morning the parents continually perched in front of the nestbox where the youngsters could see them, and when they took food to them, they often pulled it back as if to intice them to come out to get it.

Despite the early start at peeking, the first one didn't go until 11:30 a.m. Here he is, just a spit-second before he left. Unfortunately, when he did go, he flew directly at the camera, and was quickly out of focus so I was not able to get a usable inflight shot. As soon as he cleared, the second one appeared in the opening and flew a just few minutes later. The last one took about four hours to summon the necessary courage. I didn't actually see it leave. It was in the opening and had been there for 30 minutes or so when the clock told me I had to leave if I wanted to get to the restaurant in time to meet DW. When I got back, an hour and a half later, the box was empty and I found nothing to indicate trouble.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2008 1:55 PM