Sad day today – found two dead bluebirds

[Carol – Mid-Mo.]

Well, after having around 14 degrees below zero (and several other days of below zero) a few days ago, today it got up to 67 degrees, so I decided to go outside and clean my wooden deck where I have my cage feeders located. I have had tons of small birds feeding on my peanut butter suet, including several bluebirds. A few weeks ago I had counted six blues at the feeder, which would be parents and the four blues from last nesting. But the last week or so I noticed a drop in blues, mainly only papa and mama and one or two juveniles. Today I decided to check out my nestboxes – and my heart dropped when I found two dead blues in this one box. I believe they died from the cold spell, but one did look like it may have been hit on by HOSP, as I did see a pair of HOSP around this box earlier.

In all my years I believe this is the only time I have found dead blues in my boxes – mainly only eggs that did not hatch, etc. The only other time is when a whole nest of unhatched eggs finally hatched after 2 or 3 days of being abandoned and they finally died. So sad . . . . but this is nature doing its thing I must remember.

[phillyblues]

Sorry to hear. I know the feeling!

[blue diamonds]

Oh my gosh……this is so sad 😟. I’m seeing a lot of people on Facebook saying the same thing. It must have been a hard winter for them.

Judy-Michigan

[Carol – Mid-Mo.]

Thanks, Judy, yes, this was really a downer for me – guess I am not alone. Nature can be cruel sometimes – we just do the best we can for our precious blues and go on.

[Author]

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