This summer Bob and I put up two bluebird houses, one in and one adjacent to the prairie restoration area. I had sent away for one of them when we saw a bluebird couple in the driveway. It is the first time I had seen bluebirds on the property.
Thinking we probably had missed them, we eventually got this one up and then I found an old one in the woods on the ground that Bob repaired and put up. We had vacancy!
The first attempt was a tree swallow in the first box. I am monitoring both boxes/nest sites for the Cornell Ornithology Lab, where one can register nest sites and make entries, helping with the University’s tracking of nesting in the country.
tree swallow eggs
These parents were quite distressed about me monitoring the nest and taking photos — the mother usually not leave the nest when I opened it to look.
Mom won't leave, hunkers down.
All seemed well, but one morning I found the nest destroyed and the eggs gone. I was sadder than I thought I could be! It looked like a raccoon had attacked the nest. Cully comforted me saying that maybe there are little raccoons somewhere that got a good dinner because their mom had eggs for breakfast. “Maybe that’s the way this nature film ends,” she said.
So Bob put up a baffle, I cleaned out the nest and we hung our the vacancy sign again (so to speak).
The next taker was a house wren. Now perhaps the tree swallow nest might have been destroyed by the wren, although I don’t think so. I found out that wrens are very territorial and very aggressive. In fact, males will put up “dummy nests” in all available spaces to discourage other birds and then the female picks one and finishes the real nest. My web advice said it’s ok to remove the dummies, but it is illegal to remove any bird nests if they are nesting. This wren had built what looked like two dummy nests, One in the first house and one in the second. I removed both.
After that, I monitored the nests and it looked like the wrens were finishing a nest in bluebird1 (name for the first box). Sure enough.
house wren eggs in bluebird1
house wren chicks July 24, 2009
Then I was startled to realize that we had ROBINS nesting right under the deck. George was licking the deck and I wondered what he was doing — looking down through the floor I saw a nest complete with chicks. Amazing that the robins picked that space with big dogs so close, laying right on top of it, although they couldn’t get to it.
robin's nest under the deck
little chicks through the deck floor
At the same time discovered BLUEBIRDS nesting in Bluebird2. How had we missed it. An abundance of nests and families.
bluebird chicks in Bluebird2
Bluebird2 nestbox
baby bluebirds
All these families were successful, all fledged. Although we didn’t see the actual leaving of the nests. The robins left first, then the bluebirds and finally the wrens. In the wren nest there was one unhatched egg.
Very Nice Photos and story, Thanks!
Every fall in about the middle of Oct, our yard becomes a stopping point for migrating Blue Birds. There are from 50 to 100 birds hanging around the property for 2 to 3 days. I don’t know why, because they don’t use the bird feeder. They do like the bird bath but I doubt that that attracts that many birds. This event has happened for about six years now. Very beautiful!
Thanks, Steve, for reading and responding. I know you like the birds too.