Bird Watching: Mostly Bluebirds, 1 by 2dCousinDave

2dCousinDave wrote:
Before we left I noticed both adults on and around the nest box. Mama even went inside. I had seen HOSP in the vicinity, so I presumed she was concerned about keeping the HOSP from claiming the nest box before her next nesting. I decided I would put the sparrow spooker back on the nest box for a week or so.

I was a bit surprised when we returned from town to find they were still around the nest box. Now, I thought, they must be looking for meal worms, as I usually feed them about 6:00 p.m. As I walked up the steps from the basement with the worms, a bird flew by me so close it brushed my arm. I was shocked to realize it was a bluebird fledgling. In fact, it was Number Four. He apparently had been under the deck for the five hours since he fledged. Papa saw him and tried to get him to fly with him to the trees but no luck.

As I had feared, he was two days behind in his development and just not strong enough to fly more than 20 feet or so and he couldn't seem to get more than 10 feet off the ground. If I could have caught him I would have put him back in the nest box, with a hole reducer to keep him in. Mama could have fed him through the hole and I would have removed the reducer in a day or so, But no such luck. I couldn't get within 20 feet of him. And on top of everthing else, Papa was dive-bombing me when I tried. (After all, they are wild birds,even if they sometimes seem like pets). He flew into the neighbor's yard, then hopped back into my yard and all the time it was getting darker and darker. When I last saw him he hopped through my back fence and into a thicket in the common area behind our house. Papa was near him there but there was little he could do. All the other fledges were high in a tree, at least 50 feet off the ground. I can only hope Number Four got up into a small tree, stays very still and survives for another 24 hours so he can get stronger. But I probably won't know his fate for a week or so when hopefully all six of them will come back to the deck for meal worms.

This is one time when I didn't have my camera. But this is a picture of one of his brothers at the exact spot where Number Four was when I last saw him. About to go through the back fence.

This message was edited May 7, 2010 12:59 AM

This message was edited May 7, 2010 1:21 AM