Bluebird thread # 8

If you want to go back to number 7 , it is here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/841458/

The first brood is now 46 days old, and Mama has five little ones in the nestbox, four days old. Papa has stopped feeding the older ones but he does stand guard while they go into the cage feeder alone. I (or he and I, rather) have one male that is reluctant to go into the feeder. He sits outside, begging whenever he sees Papa, who is now taking worms to the nestlings. If he is close by, Papa pecks him until he stops. Obviously, the youngster is confused by this tough love.

Here Papa flies directly at the fledgling.

He flies around to the other side, looks in, but doesn't go in.

Here comes Papa again!

Next shot. The fledgling flees.

And so their education continues. He did cautiously return and feed himself a few minutes later. Papa waited at a safe distance.

Here are some candids from this morning.

Here I am entirely too close to him.

Papa watches from the edge of the roof.

Ruffles his feathers...

And flies toward me. Here you can see the broken middle toe on his left foot. This is how I know he is the same male as has been here since 2004.

Mama, again from this morning.

Here are a couple of shots of the fledglings

Same one

This one from yesterday, a bit soft, in the rain.

On the feeder.

Here's Papa again, pretty wet.

He seems to dry fast.

Mama, during a brief, break.

Papa again.

A shot of Papa, several weeks ago.

Mama today

Here she is, back to work.

One more.

Here is a begging scene from several days ago. Mama has ignored their pleas, since she started incubating, but still they try.

Here Papa helps with feeding of the nestlings

Again.

Here is Mama, leaving the nestbox.

This message was edited May 21, 2008 10:45 AM

And returning with chow.

Papa helps.

Last shot for now.

spectacular as usual. I love the look on the two caged fledglings when Papa is reprimanding the other. Ha. Cuties all.

Great pics. I can tell you are a good landlord. I had a pair in one of my boxes but something must have happened to them. my Hubby and I were gone over the weekend and now they are gone. I went and checked the box and nothing came out and I haven't seen the adults since we got back home. Haven't seen any fledglings either.
Will they brood again this season or will I have to wait until next season to try again to be a better landlord?

Your "Here comes Papa again" picture (5th one down) is awesome - as they all are - but I really like that action shot! I've missed reading your posts and glad to see you back!

Hope you have dried out a bit up there, Dave! Glad to see your photos again! So much fun to see the progress. There are 4 babies in my box and mom and pop are very busy feeding them. Your photos have been an inspiration :)

I'm going to post a thread in a bit - apparently there's a bit of a meal worm shortage - and my first attempt at getting them online resulted in being sent fruit flies instead! Any ideas where to go online?

Edited for clarity!

This message was edited May 21, 2008 1:24 PM

Excellent pics Dave!

Glad to see the new thread.

Well, CBL51, whether they come back will probably depend a lot on why they left, if they did. Just being gone over a weekend shouldn't make them leave. Actually, there's no requirement that you feed them. This time of year there should be plenty of insects around. It is hard to figure why they choose to nest in this yard versus that one. Sometimes they go back and forth between two or more nestboxes, and even if she starts a nest, you never really know. Usually when she lays that first egg she has bonded to that box and it will take a disaster to get her to leave. Anyway, they usually have three nestings in the south -- sometimes only two way up north. So if you have a completed nest in your nestbox, I'd watch it for a week or so. If you don't see any progress, clean it out and hopefully they or another pair will start again.

BW: I have heard there is a shortage of mealies. This is one of the busiest times of the year, so it is not totally surprising. But apparently a lot of the suppliers are running short. I ordered 10,000 from Sunshine on Monday and they filled my order without comment, but someone on another forum told me they weren't accepting new customers. I would call them on the phone and give them a sad story and maybe you can get something, particularly if you don't order as many as I do. Problem is it is already too late for them to ship today and if they ship tomorrow, they would have to go overnight, since UPS doesn't deliver on Saturday. And you might end up paying more for the shipping than for the worms.

I don't know what else to tell you. Sorry about the fruit flies. Bet Zimmerman has a list of meal worm suppliers on her Sialis site.

Dave


http://www.sialis.org/bluebirdstore.htm#mealworms

Yes - Pelletory recommended Sialis links on the thread I started. I've called most of them, and you are correct - there is a meal worm shortage! They aren't accepting new customers for a couple of weeks to a month. I'm going to ration the ones I have and drive to a WBU store - apparently they still have them. Maybe WBU is buying up all the meal worms - or your thread has inspired many more bluebirders! I guess this a good sign that blue bird trails are going up all over the country.

There appear to be lots of bugs here, so they'll just have to give up "fast food" for a while...

I love the 'too close to him' shot...fabulous!

Dave. You have d-mail from me. Thank you.