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Connie, yes, it is very relaxing to watch all the spring bird activity right now – I have about 7 or 8 days yet for the baby blues to fledge, the ruby throat hummingbirds are here at my feeder as asre the Baltimore Orioles, both male & female – what a sight to behold! AND I disposed of the male & female HOSP this late afternoon – I just waited them out, their nest was about half built, I set the trap and caught the female first and then had the male within an hour! Been a very good day. This male HOSP has keeping busy at this box and another one close by for several weeks – love to keep them busy at their own box and be able get rid of them at the right time.
David is right – what’s with this bear – please be careful – I know you all are used to them but they are still bears!
Judy, yes, they will just keep putting sticks in the box – just be sure to leave a few so they know that this is THEIR OWN box. Also, do not remove any nest which is completed, that is with a nice cup and/or with eggs. . . . . . .
Tammy, sorry your eggs did not hatch – I’ve always heard that the eggs are as susceptible to the cold as the babies, but who knows? My 5 eggs did hatch okay and mama has been incubating about 5-6 days now. They are feeding worms like crazy – I call it the “worm train”, each parent back & forth from the worm bowl to the babies in the nest. Hope you get a new batch of eggs soon.
P.S. I did close up one of the vent slots, which was on the north where most of the cold wind was coming from. Of course, I opened it up when the weather permitted.Good news, Judy – dido to what David says about the guards- I don’t have a shepherd’s hook – my blues LOVE to hang out in my trees. They come to one special tree where they wait for me to put out the worms and then swoop down to devour them and bring them to their 5 babies. P.S. Don’t let those wrens fool you – they are around and we just don’t always see them until it is too late. HOSP don’t try to hide from you but those wrens are sneaky.
Glad the eggs are coming, Rich – it is always fun (and sometimes worrisome) waiting for those eggs. On egg laying time, I have always read to wait until noon to check for new eggs and have found this to be sound advise. If you notice the birds are most active in the morning. Yes, it is usually early when they are “active” but the actual egg laying is late morning, at least that has been my experience. My mama and papa have been very busy today (been warm & sunny) bringing the live mealworms to the babies – I call this the “worm train”, first papa takes a bunch to them, comes back to the worm bowl where mama is waiting with a mouthful to bring to them. back and forth until the worms are gone. I am careful not to feed them too many worms – they are just to supplement the natural food which they need to forage for, and be able to take care of themselves if needed. Somewhere it is suggested 10 worms per bird, two times a day. This is my guideline, and of course the babies would not need that much for the first week or so. Good luck.
Wow, hope their box is large enough for all those babies – good thing it is not in the heat of summer. You may have to put them on a diet. Yes, keep us informed.
I am feeding my live worms now, as most of the winter birds have left and the parents of my 5 new baby blues are already feeding them worms. They were just born late Friday or yesterday.
Not well – I contacted a bird rehaber up in Swope Park in Kansas City. This is a very large & well-respected zoo with lots of helpers & rehabers. She told me that it is possible for an injured/broken wing to heal IF they get it early. Unfortunately, it had been about 3-4 weeks since we first saw this bird on the ground, but thought at the time it was just searching for food. However, I did mention to dear hubby that this is not normal for a bluebird. Well, we didn’t see it again for about 2 weeks and then saw him almost every day hopping around, this would have been maybe Easter weekend. The area & helpers there at Swope Park are not open on Monday, so I was not able to contact them until Tuesday. Together we came to the conclusion that Mother Nature would have to take care of this, I did give him some suet in a bowl but believe other birds just ate it. Thanks to everyone for their ideas & concern.
Tammy – HI -I’ve missed you.
Yes, I have 3 Gilwood (wooden) boxes and one Audubon Society box (given to me by a good friend). My blues have always used the Gilwoods except this year they decided to build in this Audubon box. I have built two new Gilwood boxes with slightly larger floor area – the originals were somewhat small I found. Most of my older original boxes were 16 square inches and specs on the Gilwood are 14.875 square inches (3.5 x 4.25 inches) My newer boxes we have modified to now be 15.93 square inches, not much difference but enough to help when there are 5 babies.
Rich, do you have eggs yet? Hope so – good luck with this nesting.
Renee, those mites ARE NOT nice for sure. That was surely a learning experience for me – never had a problem with them on bluebirds – anyone ever have? Those TRES were so beautiful and I would love to have another nesting, EXCEPT for the mess they leave in the box! The blues are so good about keeping their nestbox clean, at least most of the time.
