Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
My pair just started their nest today. I think that they have been waiting out the weather, as we have had a very cold and changeable Spring. Since January we have had a couple weeks of teens to 40’s, then a week of 50s and 60s, then back to cool again. This past couple of weeks we have had 60’s and 70’s with a few days in upper 80’s and yesterday it hit 90 before dropping back to the 60’s again. Today the pair were carrying nesting material to the box and have the basic circle started. I am having to restart my mealworm farm. A combination of COVID and cold basement due to inability to use my woodstove (cracked chimney liner) froze them out. I only have a couple mealworms hundred left (no beetles) to start again.
Dave do you have an in-box camera there? You are getting some nice photos.
Happy Birding everyone!
David
Stafford, VANot only should you use a bigger PCV pole but you should also place a 6″ to 8″ diameter stove pipe about 6 – 8 inches below the nestbox to deter climbers such as the snakes and critters that can grip around the pole but also raccoons, squirrels, cats and other animals that could climb the round pole.
Here is a photo of my nestbox and the stove pipe baffle. It consists of the stove pipe and a top with a hole cut in the center the diameter of the PCV pile. I also cut a 1/4″ hardware cloth circle to fit in the stove pipe and cut random sized pieces, folded the sharp wire edges to go through the circle to keep snakes from trying to crawl through, and then stuffed some scrunched up chicken wire fencing in the baffle to further tangle a snake that might try to challenge the baffle. I used 2 large screws 180 degrees apart to hold the baffle under the lid. It will wobble to the side to keep anything that tries to climb it from reaching the top.
Hope this helps. By the wai I am using 2 1/4″ PCV pipe.
David
Stafford, VAThank you Tammy and Carol.
It has been cold and breezy here in Virginia. Not as bad as the Midwest though.
Tammy, imjur is a free service. You just need to set up a basic account to begin posting your photos.
Carol, once the cold weather set in my bluebirds stopped taking the mealworms and have been daily feeders at my nut and fruit feeders. I wanted to try your suet recipe but have not had time to do it. Maybe one day.On another note, my mealworm project came to a halt when both my wife and I caught Covid-19 at the same time. I still have a few live worms but my entire beetle colony collapsed. So I will start a smaller venture in the spring.
I also was not able to finish the data collection, so I will start that again in the new season.
David
Stafford, VACher, Tammi – I see the post and will see if this goes through. I have not been active for a while due to travel. I will start to collect the season Statistics to send to Cornell University next week.
Thanks to all the Bluebird enthusiasts that are keeping our birds in the air.
David
Stafford, VAIt is good to hear that the little ones are doing okay in the heat.
My bluebird parents are feeding the young ones away from our back yard in a wooded lot nearby. There must be a good supply of bugs over there because they have not been cleaning out the mealworm bowl. Wrens and chickadees spend more time in the mealworm feeder that the bluebirds.
David
Stafford, VA
This one was added without the title but it is more time consuming than just typing a simple title.
David
Stafford, VAHoooraaah! It took a little time but it did work.
I used my iPhone for this.
1. In your imgur app, select the photo that you want to use.
2. Tap on the photo. Your “share” screen will come up.
3. Scroll down to “copy Link” and tap.
4. Return to your post. Select the “IMG” above the text box
5. in the pop-up, paste the link that you copied following the http// and press ‘next”
6 Add a title. I will try to do the above without the title to see if it works. It would save this step.
7. Finish your post and click Submit. Scroll up to the posts and you should see your photo in the submission.Have fun.
David
Stafford, VATest of Imgur app.
Test for Country GirlDavid
Stafford, VA
