Babies

Bluebird babies at last!

Well, here is the story.

As a refresher, you will remember that the bluebirds in the nest box in our backyard back in early May built a nest and laid an egg. The books say that they usually lay one egg per day until 5-7 eggs are complete. Well each day for 5 days our nest had only 1 egg total. And then on the 6th day there were two. But, on the 7th day there was only one again. The only explanation was that a snake was probably climbing the pole each night and eating that day's egg. In the morning the female probably laid another egg and then that night the snake....you get the picture. This is not that unusual. The bluebirds abandoned their nest.

After I installed a predator guard on the pole and threw out the old nest, the persistent bluebirds built another nest and laid 5 eggs. The eggs hatched on May 22. It usually takes 16 days or so for the baby birds to fledge (leave the nest). Supposedly, the more food they get the earlier they might fledge. After $30 worth of mealworms these babies should have been well fed. Unfortunately we were out of town for 5 days during that time and missed the grand emergence. When we returned everyone was gone. No babies were to be seen and not even the male and female were coming to our deck for mealworms as they did within 5 minutes. That was Tuesday.

But on Wednesday the parent bluebirds returned for mealworms and by watching the direction that they flew we spotted the babies in the high trees nearby. We can't tell exactly how many are around because the babies hide pretty well among the branches and they move around alot. They also stay pretty high in the trees.

But this evening the babies were in the trees close to the deck and one precocious fledging (out of the nest but still relying on their parents to feed them - the equivalent of a college student) flew to the deck railing when he/she saw where dad and mom were getting all of the mealworm goodies. The male bluebird is a little fuzzy in the picture because he was moving, but it is a pretty good first picture of one of the babies. Soon the youngsters will have a degree in Entomology (insects) and the bluebird parents can retire to a place in Tennessee and play tennis and golf. Not a bad deal!