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Hi All,
Tonight’s low temperature is suppose to be 26 degrees……..brrrr. I have frontyard paired boxes and backyard paired boxes. They both have 5 bluebird eggs each. I’m a little worried about the low temps tonight. I did put some wool socks under the nesting boxes bottoms (tightly secured), trying to keep the cold out coming from the bottom of the box. Sure hope it works.Tree swallows have been trying to take the empty paired boxes, but the blues do not want them there. It has worked in the past, but these 2 pairs are not having it. The TRES have been persistent, I like them in the paired boxes because they help watch the bluebird nests too. Time will tell.
Heard the call of the house wren today………..Hope it moves on down the road.
Judy – Michigan
Grrrr! Those little stinkin wrens are back up here. I have a chickadee nestbox with a camera in it in the backyard and this afternoon a lone Wren entered the box and stuck around a minute. I need to put a good curse on that little rascal.
Weird… I looked at ebird migration reports this morning and there were no wrens north of Green Bay (the city, not the bay). One of two things must be true… 1 – they really do ride on the backs of migrating Canada Geese. Or, 2 – who the heck pays any attention to the little Turd bird? Which results in no sightings reported.
Yesterday I saw my first spring flock of Canada Geese. So therefor there may be some truth to their “passengers” theory.
Tim C. WI/MI border.
BTW, I’m just joking. I would never bother the little Turd birds. They are very cute even though they are the neighborhood bully!
Tim C. WI/MI border.
lol…..nobody wants the house wrens around when they have bird boxes with eggs! They can sure do some damage. Birders that don’t have them in their area are LUCKY.
Judy – Michigan
Frost every night here for about a week. I’m seeing pairs of EBB checking out nestboxes on my trail but no worries about keeping eggs warm. They’ve not started building nests yet. But they are busy checking accommodations. I’ve put out 22 nestboxes and have about a dozen more to locate.
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Last week was a super cold week. From here on out it’s looking good. We’ll know in a few days if the wool socks worked. Hatch days are April 29 and May 1st. The mama blues have been staying in the boxes except for a quick bite to eat. Papa blue is still trying to chase the tree swallows off.
Wow Tim C……34 nesting boxes! You are going to be busy. Thank you for helping the bluebirds and other native birds. It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding. I hope you will keep a tally on how many fledge this season.
Happy birding!
Judy – MichiganJust an update……….all 5 eggs hatched this morning! They survived low temperatures of 26 and 32 degrees. I would like to think the wool socks worked…lol. Now let’s hope Mr. Wren stays away for the next few days!
Judy – Michigan
Very nice. I guess after many successful centuries of reproduction the bluebirds overcome a lot of challenges. Good to hear they are doing well.
First fully assembled nest found yesterday. No eggs yet and most nestboxes are empty. Things should move along in the next week with warmer weather and a good soaking yesterday and today.
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Judy. I had the same issue. Mine hatched too and I was elated but we had another night that didn’t get to freezing but dropped low and since the hatchlings can’t regulate their temperature all 6 babies died.
They’ve already laid 2 new eggs.Tammy
Tim, what I’m wondering is…maybe backyard birders are not normally birders that use ebird, so the normal birds that visit the backyard don’t get recorded as much and so the numbers are skewed. That’s what I think because some of the migrating info on the backyard birds seem really wrong.
I use ebird occasionally but I don’t use it to see when my backyard birds migrate. I don’t think the real birders are going to see a ton of house finches, goldfinches, bluebirds, wren, purple martins etc. Just a thought.Tammy
That’s a good point. I’m not sure what ebird uses the data for but I think it shows population trends in kind of a quasi-scientific way. It probably isn’t very useful where bluebirds are present all year. In my case when random sightings started appearing in my region I knew that arrival was beginning.
It is real nice that you can narrow down sightings to a specific month and see over several years when they might appear.
Tim C. WI/MI border.
My 2 bluebird nests are doing well. I have 5 in the backyard and I believe 5 hatchlings in the front box (I can’t get a clear view of all 5 beaks). All doing well. Still hear the wrens…..grrrr. The Bluebird’s nests are all past the stage where the wrens can do major damage. The tree swallows have nests in the 2 paired boxes, no eggs yet.
Tammy….So sorry to hear of your loss of 6 hatchling. I’m really surprised because I thought mama blue would still sit on them to keep them warm. Maybe she was a 1st time mom? Good news you have 2 new eggs….yay!
Judy – Michigan
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