Bird Watching: Bluebird thread, 1 by 2dCousinDave

2dCousinDave wrote:
Very happy for you Birdie. Hope things continue to go well. My third nestors are due to fledge tomorrow or Tuesday. Either way I expect I'll miss it. We have medical appointments in Northern Virginia both days. I watch them on the nest cam and they seem to be OK. It has been hot here too. Mid nineties every day and 103 day before yesterday. I can only imagine how hot it must be inside the nest box.

My meal worm feeding has gotten totally out of hand. I have two pair of mockingbirds and two pair of robins, all nesting within 50 feet of the bluebird nest box. One mockingbird nest is in a crepe myrtle less than 20 feet from the bluebirds' nest. All eight of the bigger birds come flying if I go out on the deck, or if they see the bluebirds feeding. I usually have to throw a handful of mealies down on the patio below to divert their attention, and then quickly put worms in the feeder for the bluebirds. The backyard is a flying circus with aerial fights and dive-bombing, and me, the ring master in the middle with my garden hose, squirting any robin or mockingbird that comes too near the bluebirds.

Despite all this I am still taking lots of pictures of the bluebirds. I tend to demonize the mockers so much I forget that they too have a family to feed.