Nesting news: All tucked in
The bird moms are ready for the night. The Robin baby is doing fine, and both Chickadee and Bluebird are still incubating. I love watching them in the evenings, they certainly do look cozy. And with so many birds nesting, feeder activity has slowed down a bit. Which is nice for the bird food budget.
Nestbox news: Doing the shuffle
The Bluebirds have been doing a lot of nestbox visits to inspect and clean up recently. This year's couple is named Johnny and June, and here you can see her doing her little shuffle for the first time this season. She has not actively started building yet but given that last year she begun March 1, we may be close to that.
I am again using the 6 inch diameter PVC box that I made last year. The little grid you see on the bottom is just the lid of a suet cage on which I bent the corners to fit. It is in there to elevate the nest from the bottom to help with ventilation and also to help prevent harm from Blowfly larvae (they hide in the bottom of a nest and only come out at night to feast on the babies. The female is usually aerating the nest, and in my thinking, the larvae will fall down and end up on the floor underneath the grid from where they cannot climb up to the babies.)
Also - a happy Women’s Day to all on this March 8th.
And so it begins...
In the last couple of days, the Bluebirds have been back to check out the nestbox. I have taken out the "winter padding" of pine needles the other day and just left a tiny layer along with some dried wood crumbs. This is a larger than normal box (like a Gilbertson but with 6 instead of 4 inches in diameter, which helps the babies to get stronger for the first flight because there is more space for wing practice), so I like to help her a little bit to get it going for the first one. I do think nesting season has still some time to go, we are expecing colder temps again, but it was so lovely to see them do their thing. Last year, she started building on March 1. Nesting season is one of my favorites, and I am very excited for spring.
Video: A blue delight
It was cold this morning, with frost on the roofs and lawns but there was a lovely bit of sunshine for a little while. While I was still in bed, I checked the camera apps on my phone to see if anything exciting had happened during the night or morning, and I saw that the BBs had come over. The video is a little pixelly but it was early, we are still living in this gloomiest of Januaries and there was quite some commotion too. I have not seen the Bluebirds as much as in previous winters, so this was extra nice. I am glad they come to check on “their” box briefly on the regular, this will give them an advantage in the spring.
Nestbox news: Exercise time!
The babies are now 15 / 16 days old. They get fed constantly, Gayle and Mr. Business must be exhausted. But they are doing a great job, the babies have grown a lot in the last couple of days, and yesterday, they started to exercise their wings. They are now becoming very adorable as they become more aware of their surroundings. There is constant preening going on too to open the sheaths and get those feathers ready for the big day. Now again, the larger nestbox size is to their advantage because they have more space to spread their wings.
Nestbox news: Sitting tight
Gayle and Mr. Business are doing a great job raising their four babies from the third brood. It is always interesting to see what they bring them, and this time around I see lots of larger maggots, spiders and flying insects. This little scene happened a day ago. He is always eager to feed the babies, and while he gives her part of the loot here, he also still goes in. They have a little interaction, and then a warning call can be heard from outside. They hunker down and sat it out (took a couple of minutes), and when another call is audible, they both leave. The babies are 8 and 7 days old today, and I removed the Wren guard. I am sure Gayle will appreciate it, she loves to peek out. Everything looks good so far. I am so happy.
Nestbox news: Four for three!
Gayle has continued to lay eggs in the last couple of days. Today, she did not, which means that the third clutch of the season will have four eggs. She will now start to incubate. Mr. Business brings her the occasional snack and the babies from the last brood are also still hanging around. I am leaving the Wren guard up for good luck even if I have not heard or seen a Wren since we brought the babies to the rehabber. (The rehabber told me today they are doing great.) Maybe once it is removed, the second clutch will help feeding the last set of babies to get them strong faster. I like how the nest looks this time around, a very elegant paler grass nest.
Nestbox news: It was a big day yesterday,
the Bluebird babies have hatched! The first two did so yesterday, and the remaining three took a bit longer and hatched this morning. It was a bit nervous yesterday because I saw Gayle looking out the entrance hole a lot and also leaving a lot, and Mr. Business was nowhere to be seen. These birds are hardy but anything can pretty much happen to them any time. Thankfully, this morning, he finally seems to have realized that he has babies now, and him and Gayle have been feeding them diligently all day. The next couple of days will be on the cooler side, and this is when the babies are most vulnerable.
You can hear Mr. Business sing a little melody when he arrives with food. that is later going to be the parents’ call to lure the babies out of the box for fledging. I really like how much space they have in there, how they don’t have to hover over the babies but can watch them from the edge of the nest. Nobody is crammed unless they want to.
Nestbox news: And then there were three
Today at around 11, her usual time, Gayle laid her third egg of the clutch. The weather is mild and sunny, and right now, things could not be better. She comes in to sit on them every now and then but does not appear to be incubating yet. The next two days will show how big the first clutch of 2022 is going to be. Now when she starts incubating, her metabolism changes and she is producing more body heat. On her belly, there is a so-called brood patch without feathers and blood vessels closer to the skin that she uses to keep the eggs warm.
Nestbox news: Almost done!
After the framework mostly made of pine needles, Gayle is now shaping the nest cup and lining it with soft materials like grass and feathers. This looks pretty much done now. I love how thick the "walls" of the nest are, this should be very helpful if we are experiencing another sudden frost, which can always happen during spring in Michigan. The old box did not allow for a cozy nest like that.
Nestbox news: It's getting interesting
Gayle has continued to haul material into the box all morning, and now a nestcup is beginning to form. I would not be surprised if she laid her first egg tomorrow, but we will see. Here is the nest as it looks today, and photos of Gayle and Mr. Business. He is the one with more blue.
Nestbox news: Back in business!
The weather has been rather nasty this week, and Gayle did not really do a ton on the nest. Today that changed, though. Temperatures were lovely but you could not feel them because there was a big storm raging all morning and the first half of the day. Yet, Gayle resumed her efforts and made quite some progress. I hope this means the weather will continue to improve now. All the visits in this clip are from today, I edited a bit.
Nestbox news: Mr. Business does Gayle a favor
That pesky leaf that Gayle was not able to fully remove is now finally gone thanks to the help of Mr. Business. It took two attempts and some funny interaction between the to to finally remove it. I love when they “talk” to each other, it is so eandearing. My favorite is when he does the triple whistle. It almost sounds like he poses a question. This is from two days ago, and the nest has grown now.
Nestbox news: Gayle and the giant leaf
Gayle has now actively started to build her nest in the big Gilbertson box, and I am so happy. She has been bringing grass and pine needles in, and today she came with this ginormous leaf and then seemed to have issues handling it. She actually tried several times to bring it in, this is when it worked. But then she did not seem to be too happy having it around. At some point Mr. Business came checking on her. It was hilarious to watch.
Video: BBs checking nestbox
These two have been coming back every so often recently, each time taking a piece of a wood shaving. I love to see them but it is also so cute how they vocally communicate. The box is a Gilwood that I built, the camera is a Wyze. It is not a perfect setup yet but I loved this little video.
Wren update
While the Bluebird babies have grown and started to fledge, the House Wren has gotten comfy in her nest and enlarged her clutch. This morning, she laid egg number six. It is possible that she does another one tomorrow, but then she should be done.
Video: Fledge day!
Four of the Bluebird babies left the nest early this morning. There is a runt, and he / she is still in the box, all dry with torrential rain outside. It was cool to properly see and hear the process of them getting ready to leave, it’s gotta be such a big decision for them. They do a back and forth call with the parents, and once they feel save enough, they just go In the second video you can hear the parent answering outside a bit too. The third video was a cute scene from the other morning. Mom came to check on the babies, and the sun made her shadow appear on the wall like a little movie.
Update - all five babies have fledged now. That a big day for them! The last one left the box at around 2 pm during heavy rain. Such a little trooper.
Video: Dr. Clara and Mandrake
both take turns to bring caterpillars, flies, moths, yellow jackets and spiders to their young. It is amazing what these tiny shrimp can swallow, but often, they need to empty themselves right away too. Which is what you see here. Mom takes the white fecal sac, the "diaper", and either eats it or discards it away from the nest.
Video: I have always loved
the song of the Bluebird but it is awesome to hear them up close, communicating around the nest. Here, the male, Mandrake, goes in to "rearrange the furniture" while the female, Dr. Clara, is waiting outside. It appears that she soon has enough of him doing that, and she demands that he come out 😊
In the second video, he is showing off his vocal skills when he again went into the box to “fix things”. At the end, you can hear a little warning call that they do when they feel that they need to take cover.
I watched and waited,
but the BBs would not attempt to get into the new box. time feels of the essence right now, so I caved. I did what I wanted to do for a while now anyways and updated the old box. Made a new roof with a camera housing. It is all mounted now, and I hope it is not too late and the BBs will return and find it again to their liking. And I got such a kick out of the new and improved view into the box. How befitting for today, it is the release anniversay of Binaural too 😊 (one of my favorite albums that has a nebula on the cover).
