Baby blues are back

[Carol – Mid-Mo.]

Well, my 3rd nest of blues fledged successfully almost 3 weeks ago and parents have brought them to the worm bowl finally. But I have only seen 2 of the newly fledged – I have a bad feeling the other two did not survive a really bad storm we had about 2 weeks ago – lots of trees were downed and lots of blowing wind. I’m not sure about this yet, but I was afraid none of them would survive this severe storm so am glad at least two did. Any way, they are eating me out of house and home now, INCLUDING one female cardinal who is thin enough to slip into my caged feeder. It is about to drive me crazy chasing it away so as not to eat up all the worms. I saw the parents chase it off a few times but it is persistent and they finally just left it eat with them.

Our season is about over – hope my blues all stay around this winter like usual. Hope everyone is well and that next season we all will be back to a normal life.

[Julie]

Carol, so glad at least some of the blues survived. That’s great you got to see them after the storm. Maybe once that cardinal plumps up on your worms she won’t be able to fit in the feeder!! I share your hopes that next year will be normal life and that all are well.

You shared a comment a few weeks ago about your husband’s thoughts on withholding mowing ’til the blues fledged. I shared that with my husband, who laughed. His favorite line is, “Are you letting the birds rule our lives?” Yes, I am. It’s so funny.

Tree swallows are swooping around today. They showed up yesterday. I haven’t seen the blues for awhile, so that’s the case for feeding worms. I’ll see them again after frost. They show up regularly then for water.

One last update: I caught 35 HOSP in 3 weeks back in July, so that was quite successful. I’ve just spotted 2 HOSP in the yard this week, so if more show up, I’ll try again. Hope everyone is doing well!!

[Carol – Mid-Mo.]

Julie, great work on catching those HOSP – I did try my repeating trap for about 2 or 3 weeks but had no luck at all. Tried different seeds and bread – they really had no interest and in fact did not have really that many around.

Glad I am not the only wife around who thinks sometimes things can wait a day or two if it means a successful fledge for our precious birds. He won’t admit it but when he knew they had fledged the very next day and now they are back at the worm bowl, he is glad he did not disturb them – the grass managed to get mowed and all is well.

[David in Stafford,VA]

Carol and Julie. It is good to hear about your fledglings and HOSP adventures. I had similar trouble with the remnants of “Laura” a few days ago with the heavy rain and winds. I have only seen 3 of the 4 of our last brood lately. Julie, I am impressed with your HOSP trapping. That makes a dent in the population. I have not seen any thing but Bluebirds at my mealworm feeder. Maybe they are used to the open feeders. The Goldfinches are the most prevalent birds at the feeder now.

I do have two drawers of hatched mealworms. I know there are a lot (no count yet) as I see lots of “shedding” from the molting of the young worms in the drawers. They will be ready for feeding for the late fall and winter. I will store the pupae in the refrigerator until January for next season.

I did clean out the next box and closed it up until winter for roosting during the cold nights.

It has been a relatively good year. I hope we can enjoy the rest of this crazy year and look forward to another season of Bluebirds in 2021.

David
Stafford, VA

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