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Julie & Chris, YAH – this morning before I went to church I saw parents at the box – when I got home I had decided to open the box on Sunday (3 days late) and there was nothing in it!!!! I was so very nervous about this – maybe find a crippled bird, or one marred in poop, one leg, etc. I am thanking God all day long – we have spotted the tree where the babies are as the parents are taking them mealworms. It is hard to keep track of them, though – they all fly in different dirrections. Soon the parents will take them away to teach them to hunt.
P.s. I disposed of two HOSP today with my inbox trap – I really have this down pat (no actual handling of them). However I did miss two nests which are at the back of our large lot and found eggs in both of them, which I promptly disposed of & took out nesting material. That won’t happen again – having to rid eggs as well as the nest.
I have disposed of two HOSPs inside one of my BB boxes this weekend – I let them build a very smallo amount of nest, set the trap & within 5 minutes got them. I find you must wait until you have a pair (usually the male will be there first and then call for a female) with a very small start of nest. I use the mesh laundry bag (it is large enough to go over the whole box) and like Philly Blues smack it on a hard surface (I usually smack it 2 or 3 times, since one time the male wasn’t deceased). I do it very quickly so as not to just hurt it and have it suffer. I do this without touching the HOSP at all, just hold it with the mesh laundry bag around it. I missed two HOSP nests this past month in other boxes (I have four) and waited too long because there was an egg in them – I don’t like that.
I may have a problem with my last blue bird fledging. Today is two days overdue and the bird is still in the nest as far as I know – parents are now going to the box with food. Bet (our author of the Sialis.org website) has responded to my plea with info. We have decided together to wait until Sunday which would be 3 days overdue, and then if it has not fledged by around noon (when I’m back from church) I will open the box to see if the bird is somehow stuck in the box or hurt, which does happen sometime. I’m really getting concerned about it – I have never even seen it peek out of the hole as they do getting close to fledging time. I will take precation when opening the lid to keep it from jumping out. Wish me luck!!
It is very unusual that blues put feathers in their nest, but I have had them put maybe one or two in the box – but very rare.
Yes, the weather could make a difference to some pairs. My silly pair started WAY early this year and I had to keep my fingers, toes and eyes crossed that they would make it through several freezes and miserable weather – and they did and have fledged already. Whew! I’m pretty sure you will get some eggs soon. Good luck.
Only thing I can think of – is it the same male? Sometimes you might have two different nests if the boxes (the “other house”) are a good distance away.
Callia, ditto to what Dana says – you (or someone for you) could open the box with the screw on top – there has to be a way to look inside. As far as snakes go – THEY ARE A DEFINITE PROBLEM. Like Dana said, you need to have someone put a predator guard underneath the box. Check out http://www.Sialis.org for more information on guards. Also, when putting up a new nestbox you should NEVER install it on anything wood, like a fence, wooden pole, etc. This is just asking a snake to climb it and have dinner. The box needs to be installed on anything slick, like a steel or hard plastic pole. (Steel is best – wind can blow down anything else.) Good luck! ALSO, WELCOME TO OUR SITE!
Yeah – congrats – looks like 5 to me. My blues (3) should be fledging this Thursday (17 days from hatching – sure hope they make it to the trees okay.
I don’t like touching them, so after I get them out of their box into a plastic sack I quickly smack the sack on something solid like cement a couple of times and it will do the trick – them just dispose of the sack and all – no handling them at all. (This is assuming you are using an in-box trap – I don’t use the ground traps)
Dana is right on target – if they built a nest they will use it in most instances. All the predators mentioned are a real threat (NO NESTS ON A WOODEN POLE ESPECIALLY). Good luck.
This is always a cool . . . thing when it happens. A few years back my pair which had been with me for a long time died off I guess, but anyway the fledged birds were still around all winter and then a pair (I still believe there were siblings) took over the parenting and are still around. I knew for sure that they were new parents because their habits were very different from the previous pair.
Congrats & good luck.
