Starting Bluebird thread #6

And Mama

Looking a little tired

One more

Meditation?

Navel-gazing!

And finally, a bit of an unusual shot. The blues defend "their" shepherd's hook, as they do "their" nestbox and "their" mealworm feeder. Of course, when the trespasser is so much bigger, there is only so much one can do. Here the mourning dove gets a glare and few choice words.

The dove looks like it's cowering under the sharp claws of the bb! Glad to know they are still safe, and growing.

Ah yes, another photo for the navel series.

Glad the BB's are okay!

This message was edited Apr 16, 2008 6:19 PM

Yes, the babies are fine. Their eyes are open now and they are starting to get feathers. Here is a shot taken after dark tonight. They won't raise their heads when I open the box so its hard to get a good shot of them. Mama spends the night with them, probably as much for protection as for warmth, although it has been down to the low 30's at night and they still have parts of their bodies that are bare.

Here on the left side you see the wing feathers forming. The blurred area on the right is the baby's head. Sorry for the lack of quality but maybe the informational value will out weigh the lack of picture quality.

Well you have had a hard day...

The informational value, as always, outweighs anything I know. I love your pictures and use them to teach my DH (and myself). Thank you so very much for sharing "your obsession" with us.
Nan

Well thank you for ID'ing this bird for me :-) Now I have a problem I'm hoping someone can help me with. Seems one of these birds built a nest in my daughter's playhouse and she just came inside all excited about it. I walked outside with her to see it and then she showed me the eggs the momma laid by showing me the one in her hand (she said it was sitting on the edge about to fall, and not in the nest). sigh. After a long discussion about never touching eggs or baby birds cause the momma will probably kill them, I took a good look at the nest. It's tucked up under where the slide goes into the fort part and I'm not even sure I could get the egg back in the nest, if that is what I should do. Any suggestions? Also, I was sure it was a robin's egg until she pointed out the momma hovering closely by watching us. They are blue like a robin's, right?

OH NO THE !#@!!$$!!! house sparrows!!!????!!!!!!!! Clearly you know what to do, as your babies are still with us. Hang in there Dave!!!!! I know this is not the forum but I am sure you know what I am thinking about your house sparrow situation..........MuddyLou

Dave, just tried to find the "garden foes" forum without success! Is it me? Is it my lack of grasp of the english alphabet?? Well, anyway, give the HOSPs what-for from THIS bluebird lover.

DevilDogs! great name! My dog is a devil so I can empathize. Yes, bluebird eggs are blue, although smaller than a robin's egg (they are both from the Thrush family tho). If I were you, I would not attempt to put the egg back in the nest. It is probably no longer viable, and replacing it could actually endanger the other babies ( it could rot & explode, then blowflies would infest the nest). Does your daughter use the playhouse alot? Or is it a sporadic thing? Because if she does use it alot (and of course one would hope she does!) you may wish to consider removing the nest altogether, to encourage the bluebirds to nest in a spot more likely to ensure fledging success. Bluebirds - like all birds - are amazingly resilient. Hey, maybe put up a box! Chances are you'd have a nest w/eggs within 3 weeks.

Hi Muddylou,
My dogs are Damien and Reagen from the Exorcist and the Omen, hence my name :-) The fit their names too :-)
Uh oh on the eggs. I found on the North American Bluebird Society or something like that, that they have a poor sense of smell and won't notice handling of the eggs so I put them back yesterday. It turned ugly when my daughter snuck out and "saved" another egg. Her playset is now off limits until the eggs hatch and the babies leave the nest. We have marked how close she is allowed to go and told her if she goes any closer, the entire playset is going away. I seriously hope the eggs are ok because I have no way of telling which are the one's she "saved". I'll keep an eye on them tho and if I notice all hatch but one or two, I'll remove those from the nest. Our project this year is we are growing birdhouse gourds and making birdhouses this winter so hopefully they will pick a better place to nest next year.
Thank you!

Devil Dogs... I thought you were talking about the Marines. Legend has it that the Germans gave the American Marines that name after fighting with them at Belleau Woods in France during World War I, if my memory of Marine Corps history serves me.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from today.. Seems we have HOSP everywhere so the blues are busy chasing the curious.

This message was edited Apr 21, 2008 12:05 PM

Here she is in motion

Again

Papa on guardduty.

This one early this morning with the sun at his back.

They look great Dave considering all they have been through! Thanks for the update, it is such a breath of fresh air to see your
BB's!

DevilDogs (hilarious dog names) - your plan with the eggs should work fine - your poor daughter! Well, the babies will grow & fledge fast......

Dave, keep up the great work!!

2CD, I found out the DD name in relation to the marines when I tried to get a web domain under 'devildogs' and found out the marines already had it! how dare they! So instead, I had to take 'mydevildogs'.

Great pictures. We moved here Oct 06 and I've seen these birds everywhere and had no clue what they were other than pretty. Glad I do now! HOSP must be an abb for sparrows? Sorry, I love the birds and have a feeder and watch them all the time, but know what very few are by name or much about any of them. Other than the killdeer, which I got pictures of, by pure luck, last year, just as the eggs were hatching. Haven't found a nest yet this year but the momma is making me crazy because it's somewhere right by a path I take constantly in the pasture with my wheel barrel and she flips out at me every day. It takes me forever to get back to the barn walking very carefully because I would be devastated if I ran over or stepped on the nest by accident. I need to get a picture of a larger, robin sized, brown one that nests in my front bushes and get an ID. The babies make the most annoying noise that sounds just like my dog whining. All last summer I kept yelling at my one dog to hush up only to realize it wasn't him but those baby birds!

ML, my daughter was read the riot act by myself, my mom (long distance over the phone) and my husband over those eggs. She was good today so hopefully all 3 of us finally got the point across to her!

I suspect the Marines also have Leathernecks, The Few, the Proud, First to Fight and a few more slogans tied up. Maybe even Jar Heads, but I rather doubt that one.

This message was edited Apr 21, 2008 12:07 PM

Here is an update. Even though we have had a lot of rain, the babies must be fed.

They should fledge tomorrow or the next day. Hopefully it will be sunny so we can get some decent pictures of their first flight.

This message was edited Apr 21, 2008 7:44 PM

Papa too

Another shot of Papa

And one more of Mama

Just found this thread. These photos are fantastic Dave. Thanks.

Thanks for the update Dave...best of luck with the little ones!! The pics are gorgeous of course!!

they growup so fast...

...and fly away.

Great photos and a great thread!

Wow~ almost ready to fledge ~ how great is THAT!! Congrats!!! Sometime when you've got some time you'll have to tell us about your battle with the housesparrows, or direct us to the thread where you can talk about it.........MuddyLou

I am new to this sight and am really enjoying all the great pictures and information. MY husband and i just put up BB boxes last fall in the hopes we might get some nesters. We know we have them on our property as they visited the birdbath often last summer.However we are both novices in the area of nestboxes. Any helpful advice will be appreciated.

Dave, how goes "Fledgewatch 2008" ?

Welcome gammy!

Do you put live mealworms out for Bluebirds or other birds?

Thanks for the welcome pelletory and no we or rather i usually buy black sunflower seed and sometimes the regular mix feed. Truthfully i dont even know if we can get mealworms around here. I will have to do some checking. thanks for the tip.I have been feeding the birds for years but until we moved onto our little spread last year had never really noticed any BBs before.

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

That's fantastic Dave! Great news!

And glad you made your dinner date on time.