It is interesting having these Nuthatches. I had to add a baffle to this birdhouse today, only one that has never had Bluebirds or Dees in and last one of mine to baffle. I have been observing that she is in the house all morning and I don’t see her in the afternoon but I hadn’t been checking until early evening and she has never been there. I went to put the baffle on around 3PM and made lots of quiet noises walking up to the box, nothing, so I assumed she was not in there. Hadn’t seen her peeking at all. Got the duct tape on the pole and was putting the metal plumbers tape on to hold the cap and out she flew. I was standing behind the box but dang she scared me. She scolded me for a bit and then left. I tried to hurry as much as I could. Since she as gone I decided to look again and see if I could see how many eggs there were. Nope she has them all buried in the nest, I didn’t try to feel around at all, figured once she starts incubating I can get a count. It is interesting that they hide the eggs like Chickadees. However it is even more interesting to see how much she stays in the box. I see her peeking out the entire morning and him feeding her and she isn’t done laying yet. Most birds lay their eggs and then go about their day and don’t stay in the box/cavity. 3PM and she was still in that box! Hopefully she isn’t an afternoon egg layer, don’t want to think I disturbed that!
Here she was this morning….and I have to add, I was walking up slowly as I didn’t want to flush her out of the box. I was about 30 feet from the box when she must have gotten uncomfortable and she just ducked back in, never flew away, just went back in the box.
Donna in WI