It has been a while
since I posted some photos but things have been rather quiet with so many birds nesting right now. But the light is nice and the backyard looks green and I am excited about all that’s coming up. Here are a few from the last couple of days. I had to move the cams around a bit to avoid direct sunlight, so there are some fun different backgrounds. (male Redbellied Woodpecker, Grackle, male Bluebird, female Rosebreasted Grosbeak, juvenile Starling, male Rosebreasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, Blue Jay)
Video: Baby Blue!
The Bluebird couple has been bringing their babies from brood 1 that they raised in a different spot down to the backyard recently to introduce them to feeders and bath. The female is spending a lot of time in the box but I don’t think she is done laying yet. As of this morning, she has four eggs. This was an early morning scene at the pond, first she comes in, then a baby. You can hear the others faintly in the background. It is kind of neat to have them here without all the worry during their nesting.
Nestbox news: Bird talk
The other day while playing around on TikTok, I found out that there is an auto-caption feature that looks through a video to detect speech. You can set it to whatever language you like and it will scan the video to see if it picks anything up. Now since a couple of days ago I saw it interpreting BB talk into a phrase, I am trying with every BB video I have to see what comes up. And this morning, there was a whole cute little dialogue going on. It is so cute. As somebody who is a professional subtitler, I find this highly interesting but also amusing. AI subtitling may have improved a lot recently, but if you are being serious about it, a human subtitler, interpreter and translator is the way to go.
After the snowstorm last night,
we did not have any internet, but the sun was shining and everything looked beautiful. I pretty much put a coat over my PJs and put the photo cams out to capture some of that morning sun. The Grackles were shiny, and everybody else was happy to find food (Bluebird, Grackle, House Finch, Mourning Dove).
Nestbox news: What goes in must come out... and in!
The babies are five days old and have grown steadily thanks to the constant stream of food brought by mom and dad. And what goes in, must come out. When a baby is fed, it usually relives itself right after. In the beginning, the parents will eat the fecal sac, apparently it contains nutrients that the babies cannot digest yet.
Nestbox news: The clutch is complete
Yesterday at her usual time, Gayle laid egg number five. she spent the night in the box, and today it was clear that she is done with laying and incubating now. During incubation, she will spend a lot of time in the box, warming the eggs evenly with her brood patch, and also turning them so they all develop evenly. Mr. Business will come occasionally to bring her a snack, and sometimes she leaves to get a bath, drink some water or eat. This will continue for the next two weeks. I started a little timelapse when she went into overdrive building, you can see the video below. I have started another timelapse for the next steps.
Nestbox news: A labor of love
Gayle has been working on the nest a lot even up until this morning but today around 11 she was finally done. She settled in and laid the first egg of the season. It is always fascinating to me how these small living beings are able to create something so delicate as a 1 inch egg and raise a fully fledged bird out of it within about a month. As you can see, laying the first one is quite the task, it looks like she is experiencing labor. The sparrow spooker is up and I am very happy. She will now lay one egg per day until her clutch is complete, and will then start to incubate. Here is to a great nesting season!
It is very hard
to maintain focus right now. The Bluebirds are helping to lift my thoughts out of the dark terrain they tend to gravitate towards these days. There seem to be several couples, and they have started incredible air fights, trying to figure out who has dominance over the yard, feeder and nestbox. It is a lot like the world right now, but actually delightful to watch and listen to. Here is one of the females. Please be safe out there and hug your loved ones during these dark times. Also, if you want to help - get a sticker from my shop. We are going to make a donation to a cause that benefits the people in Ukraine.
The BBs
continue to stick around as well. In between visiting the nestboxes, they go to the caged mealworm feeder, filling their bellies and sharing the bounty with the Juncos who have also figured out how to get in there. The Bluebirds and I also have a little habit - in the evening when the daily traffic has basically ended, about five of them line up on the power lines and wait for me to fill the camera bowls. Then it is raining Bluebirds and I am finishing the birding day with a big smile on my face.
The week has been busy workwise,
and there was so much bird traffic, so it took me a while to go through the bounty. Without further ado, I present part of the blizzard crowd. The Juncos had a blast. To be continued. Good night and come good into Friday!
(Junco, Blue Jay, House Finch, House Finch, Bluebird, Junco)
Video: Dinner with the Blues!
The Bluebird babies have been in the yard for a couple of days, but the male always fed them by the caged feeder (that has no cam on it). Last night, they finally led them to the open tray, and Mom and Dad joined in the feeding duties. I have seen all five babies at some point but harsh weather, natural predators or individualism might have separated the siblings. Anyways, here is some happiness to make your Saturday better. (No, the babies are not considerably larger, the angle makes it appear so.)
It was picture day,
and everybody had their portrait taken. Those who are small in size got a full-body one 😃
(Eastern Bluebird, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Redbellied Woodpecker, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Blue Jay)
And Lagertha is building again too.
Now that the first set of Bluebird babies has fledged, she is ready to give it another go, and has started to fill the box with nesting material again.
Today was fledge day!
All five Bluebird babies left their cradle on this hot and humid May day. And I only saw one of them do it, and missed to take a photo because I was excitedly talking to my husband haha. What happens is quite interesting. The babies start calling the parents, and the parents reply. It goes back and forth, back and forth for a while, and with each response, the babies become more excited and get out of the hole more. In between it can happen that the parents make a warning call and everything goes back to zero. The babies take naps in between, too. The first one went quickly, the other four took their good time. The parents went back to check on them but did not feed or take diapers anymoire. I cleaned the box and hung it back up so that Lagertha can build another nest. Here is one photo of a baby peeking out, and another one of the nest. It was quite moist and dirty, and I am glad I took it out so Lagertha can have a fresh start with no blowfly larvae or dirt.
Fledge day is always special, and today it felt like watching a long birth. The courage these babies must muster to take the literal leap must be quite enormous. I am so happy they all made it and cannot wait to see them again.
Video: It's hatch day!
The Bluebird babies are hatching this morning. A cold front is supposed to come but they are on schedule. So far, only one made it out, and he was wearing a cute helmet.
Meet Lagertha
She seems to have won the BB lady fight the other day, and is definitely a different one. There is a male hanging around with her as well. She has started to bring nesting material into the box and tried to bury the four eggs that have been in there, so after careful consideration, I have removed the four eggs that have been in the box before. The first ones had been laid at the end of March, and not been incubated. The Gilbertson box is on the small side and can only be opened from the top. If the four abandoned eggs would have sat under a new nest with babies and got crushed, the contents could have seeped into the nest, luring in insects, and a nest change would not have been easy. I try to interfere as little as possible with the nestbox, which works well with the camera. This is also how I was able to see what was going on in the nest. You have to always make sure that things are what they look like before you act if you face a situation like that. It is illegal to remove native bird eggs from an active nest.
