Post contributed by Sharon, volunteer bluebird trail monitor:
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| 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.
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| 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.
