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Hooray for you Carol. Keep up the good work. By eliminating that bunch of competitors you are giving the blues a better chance at occupying your house at the next sitting. Your next pair may just be waiting on a branch somewhere right now. 
DavidDavid
Stafford, VAThanks Connie. I hope that your Blue’s and other birds start their season in your yard soon. The weather in the east should start getting better this week. We have 70 and 80 degree days forecast thru next week with a couple of 90 degree days for good measure. Some of that ought to get up your way.
DavidDavid
Stafford, VAIt’s sad to see the damage these little monsters can do. Try to trap and relocate the bird.
Good luck Gin.
DavidDavid
Stafford, VAWent by the window this afternoon and saw my pair at the nest box. I just missed getting the female as she was entering the box to sit on the eggs. I took this one of the male as he sat and waited. I gave up on getting the female bird after 15 minutes. It is good to see them in the sun. We have at least 5 days of 70+ degree weather ahead.
David
David
Stafford, VADana, Congratulations on your new brood. Ours are late getting started this year.
gardensong, Never have seen or heard of it happening but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen. Could another female Blue taken to the nest also?
DavidDavid
Stafford, VAWe have our 5 eggs and the female was incubating them when I went out to check this afternoon to get this photo. I expect the hatching to be about May 11th.
David
David
Stafford, VAThanks to all. I hope your weather changes for the better soon so your BB’s can start their season.
Have 3 eggs now. I expect 5 as I believe that the pair using the box are still the ones from the past few years. I haven’t seen any of their past young ones on the yard or on the wires across the street but I have seen several other pairs in other neighbors yards.
David
Stafford, VADavid
Stafford, VAAgree with Gin on removing a bit of that nest. Did you remount the nest on a pole? Are you dealing with the CACHs this year? Keep us posted on your birds.
David
Stafford, VALisa my 2nd group of 5 made it in the heat of 90+ during early July. 80’s should be no trouble
David
Stafford, VABy my count we have more than 40 new bb’s hatched in the past week or so. That is just on this forum. I am sure there are many others around the country who have not posted their hatches/fledges.
Keep it going “Lovers of the Blues”. David
Stafford, VAWhile reading this I realized that I did have a wren situation in 2013. I lost a total of 14 eggs, 9 were in the first nesting period when I lost a female that had laid 5 eggs and then disappeared. Another female started building a new nest over the old nest and eggs – so I removed the 5 eggs. She completed her nest, laid 4 eggs, and a wren got those. I cleaned the nest and she built another nest laid 5 eggs and a wren got those also. (This is before I came to this forum and learned about the Wren guards). I took the box down for the season and the wrens went away. I also took down all of the songbird feeders as they seemed to monopolize them. I still have a few around but they have not been back to the box since then.
David
Stafford, VARandy, I am about 50 miles south of Washington, DC right off the Quantico Marine Base. I have been getting 3 fledges consistently since I started with the blues. I know all about your weather there. We used to live in Windham, just south of you. I remember 15 inches of snow on May 21 back in the late 70s. Mine took 10 days to begin the second nest. Good luck with your pair.
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David
Stafford, VACarol,
My nest box is in the open on 3 sides and has the afternoon and evening sun. It faces SSW. The only “shield” that I have used is this 14″ x 14″ piece of extra T-111 siding that I had left over from a shed project. The temps here get into the mid to high 90’s, and have reached 100+ during the summer but I have never lost a bird to the heat. My neighbors on both sides do have some tall trees that provide shade in the morning and late evening but the midday sun is full on. I have thought about putting some foam insulation on the west (left) side of the box but have not done that yet. If it looks like we are going to have a sustained mid 90’s+ heatwave I might go ahead and do it. As it has been in the 80’s here I am just watching the activity to see if everything stays normal.
David
David
Stafford, VA -
This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by
