Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Just a quick update. A couple of days after the TRES built a beautiful nest including a nice feather lining a male bluebird began spending each morning on top of their nest box. Their high speed passes didn’t seem to phase him one bit. He also spent a good amount of time on the very top of the flagpole. Long story short, the mate he eventually found has been incubating their 4 eggs for the past 3 days in a very deep TRES constructed nest. I need to use a mirror to look down into it. They did remove the feather lining but did not alter the shape of the nest at all.
I hoped that the TRES might move to the second box I put up ~ 15 feet away but they took off to parts unknown.
Hugh
I think sides are important but with a skittish bird like this one you did the right thing not starting with them. Just so you know, I leave guards on until day 10 because I don’t trust HOWR.
Gin,
I’ve yet to install the side blinders but have the sparrow spooker up. The male and female really went ballistic over that one too. Tomorrow is day 12 of incubation. We’ve had several nights in the mid 40s recently and I wonder if that may delay hatching. Today I’ll try adding one blinder at a time.
Thanks for the calm voice of experience.
Hugh
Donna,
Here’s a quick update. This morning at 7:00a.m. I noticed the tree swallow pair making rapid high speed laps around the flag pole where both their box and the newly installed box are located. Closer inspection revealed a male bluebird sitting atop the new box. A half your later he was calmly perched on the box that the swallows already have a beautiful nest located in. He’s seeming unperturbed by the swallows high speed passes and looks intent to claim one of the two boxes.
Hugh
How far away from the flagpole did you put the box? You don’t want any predator being able to reach or jump from the pole to the box. Assuming that is, that the pole the box is on is baffled.
Good luck getting the blues back. How far apart will the two boxes be? I had to go at least 25 feet apart to get to different birds nesting in paired boxes, any closer and the first bird to claim one box would protect both boxes. Some people to have success though having them closer than that.
They’re only ~15 ft apart but it’s the farthest I can go and stay in the mulched circle. Each box is ~ 7 or 8 feet from the flag pole which is a slick metal one that would be darn hard to climb. I didn’t baffle the 1/2″ emt that the boxes are mounted on but did polish the heck out of it and gave it a good coat of slick car wax. It’s enough to keep the squires from climbing the pole up to my sunflower seed feeders so I believe it’s a decent deterrent. The tree swallows checked out the second box super intensely even as I was erecting it. There was a strong breeze and they nearly hovered directly over me as I worked. I’m sure being that close to their home was a large part of the cause for close scrutiny.
Just received permission from another neighbor to put a box or two on the mulched moat in her acre plus yard. After finding a piece of 4″ pvc pipe in our odds and ends that’s just long enough to make a couple of Gilbertson boxes the timing couldn’t be better.
Off to build a couple more boxes.
Cheers,
Hugh
Gin,
Thanks so much for asking. The guard is now all the way down at 90* to the flat roof and I just watched her exit. A problem I appear to have been having in checking on her was that she seems to exit way earlier now than she did without the guard……. as in before the box is usually in sight to me. Perhaps she feels more “trapped” with the guard there. I believe the was leaving me with a false impression that she wasn’t getting into the box. The male had not been on the top of the box at all but is found most of the time ~15 feet up on a tree 30 feet in front the the box opening. I don’t have side “blinders” on the guard but probably will add them soon. Things will get even more exciting in a few days when hatching is scheduled to occur.
This is way too much fun.
Hugh
Carol,
I reinstalled the guard again this morning and set it so it juts straight out parallel to the roof with the plan to slowly lower it incrementally over the course of the day. The hinge is tight enough to do this. She was sitting the nest this morning just before I reinstalled the guard.
My other nest now also has 4 eggs this morning. That one has a sparrow spooker on it as it’s located in a significant sparrow area. I’ll go ahead and install one on the box in nearer the woods that I’m trying to get the guard installed on. I’ll try to put a wren guard on the other box today.
Thanks for all the excellent advice. This whole endeavor puts the old saying “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” in a new light.
Hugh
Wouldn’t think it messed anything up, Hugh. Sure hope not!
Nicole
I finally pulled the guard off this evening. the female never entered the box with the guard down. After hinging it up I found her in it once. I put it in a horizontal position thinking that this might begin to get her use to it but she wouldn’t enter with it in this position even after an hour. So now I’ve taken it off and am just hoping for the best. Next go round I’ll get a guard on before egg laying is done.
Thanks for the good wishes,
Hugh
Hugh, on my first nesting of this season time got away from me, and I had 5 eggs before I realized that they were laying any. I immediately put up a wren guard (I had lost 5 eggs to wrens 2 seasons before) and the birds took to it within 20 minutes. HOWEVER, they had not started to incubate yet.
In your case I don’t know what they would do. I believe I would put one up, watch it continuously for their entry, and if they don’t go in within 30 or 40 minutes, take it back down. But I am NOT an authority as I’ve only been doing this for 3 years.BZ
Well I made a hinged guard and the female gave me an earful while installing it. When I checked back 45 minutes later she hadn’t returned yet or was out feeding. Since I hinged the unit I flipped it up and am waiting to see if she returns now with it out of the way. Hopefully I haven’t screwed up the works. On a more positive note, my other box is up to three eggs since the first one appeared 3 days ago.
Hugh
Hugh
Hi Hugh – The wren guard seems to be the defacto solution offered by many here but to our dismay, even with a 3″ clearance to the house opening, our EABL female refused to lay eggs until my husband removed it. I think the best thing to do is to try it and see if the female will go in or see if you have another egg the next day. We have a wren that is doing the exact same thing in our other box, so we’ve been keeping him busy by removing the sticks on a daily basis. It’s nerve-racking but seems to keep him preoccupied while we have a group of 7 day old chicks.
Deb thanks for the reply.
In our specific case the female is done laying and has been incubating for 3 days now. I suspect it would have been smarter to have try installing a guard before she was completely done laying but as they say ” hind sight is 20/20″. I’m worried that stopping incubation may be worse than a sight delay in adding eggs before incubation. It would seem there’s a whole lot of room for second guessing one’s self in this endeavor.
Hugh
