Dr. Clara and Mandrake
and me have had a rough couple of days. After they sucessfully fledged four babies, the couple disappeared as usual to show the babies the world. They did come back occasionally to feed and check on the box. One day, however, a House Sparrow took a liking to the box. This was a first, it has never happened in five years. I use a Gilbertson box, which they usually do not like, with fishing line around the entrance, and the sparrow spooker also was still up. Shooing and spooking the sparrow did not deter him and his lady. One day, I was not home for one hour, and the sparrows had started a nest in the Bluebird box. House sparrows are invasive to the US and can have negative effects on the breeding success of native species like the Bluebirds. I will not let them nest in my boxes.
Eventually, I took the Gilbertson down. After one day, the sparrows moved on. I was very upset about this whole situation and decided to be proactive. I researched and built another box, a slotted style called Troyer. The slot and its relatively small volume are something that HOSP are usually not fond of. The slot lets in lots of light, and they like it dark and deep. The slot opening also enables the female to escape if a House sparrow should go in there to attack her. I also updated the camera in the same step. Now the BBs have brought their baby (it looks like possibly one one of the four has survived this far) to the backyard yesterday, and they have been checking out the new box already too. I hope this all works out, I did not like changing things like that mid-season but I did not want to keep the old box up that the sparrows ended up liking. This is a weird spring.
For more information on how to help Bluebirds and other native cavity nesting birds, check out sialis.org.
Dr. Clara and Mandrake nesting 2021
I will collect the photos and info I gather for this first nesting here.
April 1, 2021: Little did I know… Dr. Clara spent the night in the box but not for the reasons I thought. She is clearly a weather expert and knew that it was going to be frosty. So in order to protect her eggs, she kept them warm during the night. And added one more this morning. That should be it now. Six would be crazy!
March 31, 2021: Dr. Clara laid her fourth egg this morning and seems to be spending a lot of time in the box. So it could be that she is done and starting to incubate. Incubation means that she sits on her eggs, warming them with a bald patch on her belly and moving and turning them regularly so they stay evenly warm. Bluebirds incubate fpr about two weeks. I keep track with the nest via the Nestwatch app and notes in my calendar. This way I can see if everything is happening according to schedule.
March 30th, 2021: As of today, there are three eggs in the nest. Now it is going to be an interesting guessing game to see how many more she will lay. If she lays more, which looks likely because she is not sitting on the eggs permanently yet.
Love is in the air...
A Northern Flicker has discovered that our gutter has a nice resonating quality and has drummed to impress the ladies quite a bit. Which prompted us to build an experimental starling-proof Flicker nest box. I am excited to see how that goes. Well, and the Blue Jays are also getting cozy :)