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Thanks Tim!! I live in south eastern Massachusetts, not far from Cape Cod. I’m keeping my finger crossed. Thanks again. How long did it take you??
I put up my first nest boxes in March ’23. The first activity I noticed was on May 15. March is very early in this neck of the woods. I don’t believe they over-winter anywhere north of Central Wisconsin. I didn’t hear/spot bluebirds until just before May 15. Then by June all heck broke loose! Eight pairs were nesting by June 1st. Most of the twenty five boxes that first year were installed before the end of March.
Good luck! You might get lucky and have some late nesters find your box and produce some beautiful babies.
Tim
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
You have a good start on attracting bluebirds and hopefully keeping them around for next breeding season. I’m guessing that if bluebirds are around they will find your offerings and show their little ones where the food is. Not knowing your location I’m not sure, but, I suspect your breeding season is nearing its end. But you may still get some late starters. Here on the WI/MI border, about a hundred miles north of Green Bay, my bluebirds have slowed to just one recent new nest with eggs and two other nests with hatchlings. That’s out of 35 nest boxes. Even with that many nest boxes on my trails I don’t have more than eight or nine pairs nesting at the samee time and at various stages of nest building, eggs and hatchlings. That’s in the prime breeding season for here; that’s mid May to mid June.
It sounds like you’re doing the right things to attract and retain breeding pairs. Just be patient and you could be surprised this summer. At the very least I hope you see bluebirds frequenting your feeders soon.
Tim
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
…Are there no hard and fast rules with bluebirds?
Only the Bluebirds know! Haha…
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Paired box update…
Two boxes are about 15 yards from each other in a closed fly ash landfill on one of my trails. On May 30th I discovered one nest box had five BB eggs, today 5 hatchlings looking like they are soon to fledge. The other box on May 30th was empty. On June 24th it had a new nest and one white egg. Today it has four white BB eggs.
This is unusual for bluebirds I’m told. However, I might be wrong about the white eggs being bluebirds. They are in a bluebird style nest and are the size of a bluebird egg. In the past two seasons I have had several pairs laying white eggs. We’ll see what develops. I’m wondering if the first pair was settled in with their brood and just ignored the other pair that began nesting. Interesting part is there are at least two other empty nest boxes about 100 yards away in the same field.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Or clamp an umbrella over the nest box… That’ll get your neighbors talking!
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Try some Reflectix® Reflective Insulation. You’ve probably seen it before. It’s bubble wrap with a reflective surface. I’ve had a piece on a “Gilwood” nest box roof on my garden fence for several years. It is easy to install on the roof and can cover the sides as well. Just cut a piece to wrap from the bottom of each side and over the roof. Attach with push pins or staples.
I don’t think they will mind it being installed, especially once they have an egg in there.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Another “paired” nest box resulted in TS and BB nests near each other. I do believe I’ll continue to pair boxes after this season’s experience.
So far this season… 35 nest boxes on two trails plus our neighborhood
Nine pair of BB’s nesting
34 eggs
16 hatchlings
5 fledgedAbout the same number of Tree Swallow nests and of course the little stinkers have continued to fill unused boxes with sticks. About three Wren pairs nesting.
Yeah, we start late and finish late in the summer so I expect more numbers by August.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Interesting. They are truly tolerant of human activities, especially after eggs are laid.
Tammy… I wasn’t worried about snakes and racoons before you replied. Now I’m not so sure. : (
I know what you mean by the easy climb up the chain link fence. I wanted to say we only have Garter and Pine (Fox) snakes here but I looked up native snakes in the UP (I’m as good as in the UP being a stones throw away from the Menominee River border) and o-boy! Now I know we have more than two varieties. I haven’t had any eggs disappear so far in two complete nesting seasons but I can’t say for sure I haven’t had hatchlings grabbed by snakes. When I report nesting production to BRAW I usually take my last count of hatchlings and “assume” that they all fledged. I don’t think there’s any way to know if they all flew the coop since I visit at most once or twice a week.
Racoons… I know they are around. I don’t see them as they are mostly nocturnal. And we don’t really get “raiding parties” of racoons like I’ve seen in urban areas, campgrounds, etc. I actually have no problems with House Sparrows. They are common in Iron Mountain in the city but very uncommon a few miles away in the sticks. So I don’t deploy Sparrow spookers, baffles and traps to eliminate the threat. I read about all those deterants but have had no noticable predation of my blues. Lucky I guess. I will keep my eyes open!
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Cousin lived in or near Sylvania. Her mom is 93 and still kicking!
5 eggs this morning. Plus four other boxes with a single egg. It’s laying season but it seems to be lower bluebird numbers than the past two years at this time. I’m hoping things will change in the next couple weeks. We’ve had some crappy weather in April.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Haha. Small world. My cousin passed on Easter Sunday. She lived her whole life in Toledo. Her property was an amazing bird sanctuary. She was a big fan of Aldo Leopold, and not just because she shared a last name with him. She was very interested in natural things.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Does the BBCode automatically reduce the file size of the original photo to allow posting? I always reduce manually on “Paint”, save it, and then use that reduced size image in The forum.
The other forum I use for posting photos requires smaller photo files. Maybe I don’t need to do that if I use a BBCode. I’ll test that tonight.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Thanks David. I’ll give that a try. I’ve never used imgur so I’ll have to open that up and see what I can do.
Tim
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
I use a process that is likely not recommended as it uses another forum I post to occasionally as the host. The image is hosted there. It is not related to that forum’s content but I use it so infrequently that I haven’t had any issues.
I’ve tried different ways to post. Occasionally my posts disappear into the netherworld and they’re never published. I have never figured out the proper way to post images on this forum. The forum that hosts my photos has a BBCodes version of the image but I haven’t been able to figure out how to use it.
Tim
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
