Como Park Bluebird Trail Update: July 30th, 2015

Yellow coneflowers along the bluebird trail

Post contributed by Sharon, volunteer bluebird trail monitor:

Four bluebirds fledged last week, for a total of 31 bluebirds raised on the trail so far this year. There are five abandoned unviable bluebird eggs in one nest box, and four bluebird eggs that will soon hatch in another. All other boxes are empty and will soon be removed for maintenance and winter storage.

 

Como Park Bluebird Trail Update: July 23rd, 2015

Post contributed by Sharon, volunteer bluebird trail monitor:



A third batch of eggs!

One pair of bluebirds has laid four new blue eggs—their third batch of the season. If all goes well, this one pair alone will have fledged 13 bluebirds! In the past week, eight bluebirds fledged, and four more will be ready to go sometime in the next week. Unfortunately, there may be more bad news for the persistent female bluebird who sat on her nest incubating eggs for weeks and weeks—the five new eggs she laid have not yet hatched and this is the third week I’ve seen them. It could still happen in the next day or two, but it is unusual to see eggs three weeks in a row. There are now seven unoccupied boxes.

Como Park Bluebird Trail Update: July 15, 2015

Heliopsis in Como Park

Post contributed by Sharon, volunteer bluebird trail monitor:

Woodland trail

Only five nest boxes are now occupied, and all of them belong to bluebirds. In the past week, the last of the tree swallows, at least three, fledged. Four bluebirds also fledged. That pair of bluebirds may begin a third brood—a new nest has already been built on the old empty one. Eight more bluebirds from two nest boxes will likely fledge in the coming week. There are four week-old bluebirds and five eggs in the two other boxes. To date, the trail has fledged at least 19 bluebirds, 20 tree swallows, and 6 chickadees.

 

Como Park Bluebird Trail Update: July 9th, 2015

Post contributed by Sharon, volunteer bluebird trail monitor:

Newly hatched bluebirds

Two boxes of tree swallows (up to 11 birds) fledged in the past week. I found one of those boxes completely uprooted, post and all, lying on the ground. Inside that box was one small dead tree swallow, too small to have died in the uprooting. I believe the five others fledged before the box fell. The other former tree swallow box had a few old nest materials inside, but no old nest. Who cleaned it out? This is the same box from which a bluebird nest disappeared earlier in the season. I’d never been able to see well enough into this nest to count how many eggs or young birds were in it (the female always sat on the nest), but the male and several other tree swallow friends defended the box each time I visited. There are at least three more tree swallows in another box, ready to soon fledge.

Alert, nearly two-week-old bluebirds

Four bluebirds have reached the age of near-fledging, so I did not look into their box today. Another box has three newly hatched bluebirds and an egg inside. Two other boxes each contain four bluebirds between one and two weeks old. Surprisingly, I found five new bluebird eggs laid upon the two old unviable ones (now very deeply embedded into the nest materials) in the persistent female’s box. She has kept incubating her eggs for weeks and weeks. Hopefully, these new ones will hatch successfully.

There are now five empty boxes on the trail.

Como Park Bluebird Trail Update: July 2nd, 2015

Post contributed by Sharon, volunteer bluebird trail monitor:

Growing bluebirds

Tree swallows

The first six tree swallows fledged. Up to twelve more may do so in the next week. In the fourth tree swallow box are at least three week-old birds.

There are now five boxes occupied by bluebirds in all stages of development. One box has four blue eggs in it, two others each have four less-than-a-week-old bluebirds inside, another has four over-a-week-old bluebirds, and the fifth is the one with the female on the nest. Last week I opened that box to find two blue eggs embedded in it and wondered if they were old, un-viable ones. Either I was wrong and she is incubating new eggs, or she hasn’t yet given up on the first batch.

Three boxes are now empty.

A steadfast mother