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Thanks, all – yes, I thought about the entrance feature of the Gilwood – decided this was just a “once in a lifetime” experience with this starling – Madamewingn – no I did not let this starling go on purpose – I just could not grab it with the sack like a smaller bird and it got away.
P.S. On the Gilwood box, DH and I did modify this plan somewhat, as I believed it needed some additional ventilation, even with the bigger entrance opening. This also gives some additional light in the event I need to put hole reducer on it. We also made it a top opened, as well, so I could take pictures better. Notice the hinge in the back and hasp on sides to keep it down securely – I really love these extra features, since I am only 5′ tall I had to stand on a step stool to see inside my top opener boxes. This way I monitor & clean out from the front opening and can take pictures from the top when needed.Since this field is a public area – there would not be much you could do about someone else using it. But to answer your question, I believe blues are more tolerant than we think. AT LEAST, once they have a nest & eggs. I remember the very first (or 2nd) year of my bluebirding, I had a nest & eggs in our back yard, fairly close to our home. We had to have the roof shingled that year and the old roof had to be taken off, and you never heard the like of noise & goings on. I panicked, thinking that mama would be scared off from incubating, but after a little fluttering around she went back to her duties.
P.S. Right now this morning I have the owner of a large hayfield which is adjacent to my yard, spraying the field for something – maybe liquid fertilizer or something, hopefully not herbicide. Well he has a right to do this, but 2 years ago he sprayed a powerful herbicide and it severely damaged about 10 of our big trees & plants. They sprayed on a very windy day and the stuff drifted onto our property. (We had to contact him and get an agreement/down payment on any permanent damage – the next year these items did survive so he was not out any money) Very close to this property line is where I have two BB boxes, so I get worried. There are no eggs or babies at this time; however, I noticed the blues got out of that area today when they heard the equipment. We don’t always have control of things we want. Good luck!My pair of blues that was defending this box seem to have abandoned it. I have not seen them around it much for several days although they do come to eat mealies. Hope they come back or claim one of the other 4 boxes, if I can keep HOSP away! There was a new lone piece of weed in this box which looked HOSP to me, so I removed it. I’m wondering now if this was the blues’ claim grass, although it was not pine needle or short grass, just one long piece of weed. Sometimes I wonder if we (I) don’t try to micro-manage our nestings too much, in trying to protect them???
Interesting idea on the extra hole, Cosmo – but I really don’t think this could help too much – you would still have a chance of it escaping – but anything is worth a try! I have lost very few, especially after one gets away and you learn what to do and NOT to do. This bird was big enough that I couldn’t get it in my hand with the sack like you can do with a small HOSP, and this is the reason it got away. Gin, I’m glad to hear your response about starling getting in – have NEVER had this happen with my other boxes, and I’m beginning to wonder about the Gilwood opening – wouldn’t be too hard to put a 1 1/2″ hole reducer on it. I’ll play it by ear for this year.
Something really strange happened this morning – had my VanErt set this morning early, noticed that it had been tripped. Went out with my sack to get it (had seen HOSP at this box and it had HOSP nest beginnings in it) – well low & behold when I opened door of this Gilwood box and the bird flew into sack I thought it was really large – I never got hold of the bird correctly and it flew out of the sack – wasn’t a small HOSP at all – I really believe it was a starling. It flew away so fast that I wasn’t really sure. Has anyone had a starling squeeze into a 1 1/2″ hole before? I have witnessed one doing this on my 1 1/2″ square cage feeder before. Of course, the Gilwood box has a 2″ opening from side to side, and a bar across the top of hole to make it 1 1/2″ oval type.
Welcome Lori – wow – to have a nest & 2 eggs already is amazing. But since you live near Austin, TX you would have much warmer weather than a lot of us. I remember well my very first bluebird nest & eggs (this is my 9th season), so know how thrilled you must be. If your box is made to BB specifications (especially with good roof overhang on all sides & drainage holes), you should be okay. Here in mid-Missouri we are also supposed to get rain all week long and it did downpour yesterday. However, my pair have not built their nest yet, but have picked their box. Others will chime in here about wet nests – I know this is NOT good for babies but am not sure about just eggs??
First thing to do I imagine is to look inside box & check if nest is wet. Good luck.Donna, this was not yarn in/on the nest – it was definitely moss, although it had been inside this shrub since last year so could have just developed moss, and was not put there by the parent.
Tammy, no it didn’t look like this European Robin, and the Robin eggs around here are definitely blue, but then again, this nest was quite old. It is possible it was a mockingbird, as I had seen & heard them around here, and my next door neighbor has had them nest in her yard in the bushes – and this nest would have been about three feet off the ground in the shrub, which fits your description. So, maybe mocker – quite hard since it was so old.Thanks all – seems like this one may remain unsolved. Yes, the dried leaves are incidental since they are from last fall & winter. It must have been wedged in real tight for it not to have succumbed from all the winds we have had here in the Midwest. Of course, this shrub was about 2 feet larger which would have protected it a lot.
Thanks, Gin, for getting this image to work. I will try to remember how to do this. I did think dees were cavity nesters, Lexi, the nest I believe started as grass and the twigs you see are remnants of my clippings of the shrubs as I didn’t find this nest until I had done some trimming.
Also, the egg was not blue, more cream color with specks – hard to tell because left from last year.Pami, my blues were around all winter, also, parents & 3 from last nesting. They are here every morning & late afternoon to eat my home made peanut butter suet. Also have a seed feeder where LOTS of cardinals come, along with doves, finches, juncos, white-crowned sparrows (these 2 also come to the suet feeder), and of course, those pesky HOSP. Yes, my boxes are ready & waiting, also. I have put out a new modified Gilwood box – had one of them last year and it was popular, lst with the blues and then TRES built a nest. Hope you have a good season.
Lexi & Carolyn, these are really beautiful pictures – keep them coming. Carolyn, I notice you have a Gilwood nestbox. We (DH & I) have built two and have found a great modification to this box. Last year was the 1st year I used one, and loved it, except could not get good pictures from the front. I was used to top opener boxes, so we decided to take off the screws on top of the box, attach a strap hinge to the back & back underside of lid, which then made the top hinge up, and then put some hasps on each side of box to keep the lid down securely. Works great! We put up this new box about a month ago and an very anxious to see if the blues like it. I did have a successful fledging from the 1st Gilwood last year, and also one nest of TRES, which for some reason did not survive to fledging (found lots of mites on them). Come on Spring!!!
P.S. Very interesting how your blue took out the pine shavings – they do have a mind of their own, don’t they?Tammy, just joshing you about feeding so many live worms – they really are fairly expensive if you give them all they will eat. But then again, what is expensive to me is probably not to some. I spend close to $150 (3 shipments of 10,000) a year on the worms, and this is only about 9 months worth and being very frugal with them! Feed on ……….
Carolyn, Cher (our forum Administrator) has a great peanut butter suet recipe which I have used for 8 years now: 1 cup lard & 1 cup crunchy peanut butter, melted in microwave together, add 1/3 sup sugar, 2 cups plain oatmeal, 2 cups cornmeal & 1 cup whole wheat flour. Mix up together and let cool, then crumble up in pea sizes or smaller. My blues (& others) love it. I do keep it in refrigerator so it will not melt all over. I need to make another batch tomorrow and then will be feeding worms about mid-March.Carolyn, You are right about them going bonkers over the live worms. I don’t think for one second if you offered live worms AND suet at the same time that they would eat the suet (just wait for more worms), but then I have never done this. Once I begin offering suet (in the wintertime) I discontinue the worms altogether and as I mentioned they do pout about this at first. The fat in the suet makes a mess in the hot summertime. I do believe they will regulate their feeding somewhat, but they will pig out on those worms if given the opportunity. And as warmed, too many can be calcium depleting (eggs would not be strong). Somewhere it is suggested to feed around 10 worms per bird per day (that would be medium worms, not the large). Of course, this could vary if it were extremely cold, no berries around, etc. But they do need a good amount of natural food if possible.
