eggs and nest already

14 years ago

I have not been on the forum in a long time. Mostly because my BBs have been gone. Well a few months ago a pair showed up in the back yard so I ordered the mealworms and away we went again. I have a nestbox in the back yard and one I installed at work. I noticed at work that they were building a nest. Tonight I saw the male feeding the female mealworms in the tree. Got suspicious and looked in the nestbox. Sure enough, two little blue eggs. This seems really early to me. I sure hope a late cold snap does not come through or I may be out there wrapping the nestbox in electric heater coils (the kind you wrap pipes in to keep from freezing) to keep them warm enough. I guess the unusually warm winter has them confused.

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Comments (12)

kendra2003
14 years ago
This mild weather has all the birds and plants confused. Like you, I sure hope we don't have a severe cold snap. My Bluebirds are already paired up, though no nest is started yet. I usually see them in flocks around here until mid March. So they are early. Good luck with yours. They will probably do just fine if the weather gets bad as long as you keep feeding them. Two years ago we had a pretty severe ice storm with lots of wind. I had a nest of Bluebirds that had already hatched. I just kept giving the parent birds lots of mealworms and suet, and the babies made it through just fine.
christy2828
14 years ago
Dean, just curious, where are you located? Christy :)
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Hi Kathleen- I'll address you since the other posts are old. I am so very sorry that you have experienced this. Did you read what the responses were to the older post of one that lost a bluebird on the nest? I would just repeat everything that they said. If absolutely no sign of injury, I would suspect lawn pesticides, but considering what happened to the 1st person that posted & didn't see signs of injury on her bluebird, it did turn out to be house sparrows. I would highly suspect this. Do you think the female is dead too? If so, again I would be suspicious of HOSP. Answering your question, the male would not starve himself, nor is he able to brood eggs. If the female died too, the eggs wouldn't have hatched because the female is the one to incubate the eggs. She has a brooding patch on her lower abdomen that the male doesn't have. If she is alive, she may not be returning to nest because of the failed nest situation, especially if there was foul play. Make sure you know that she is not returning before removing the nest & eggs. If she is alive, she will probably try to find a new mate. Without repeating too much, make sure your birdhouse is on a pole with a baffle & put a sparrow spooker up after the 1st egg. If you know for sure that the nest has been abandoned & you don't get any activity, you may want to change the location of the box (birdhouse). If you immediately get a house sparrow setting up shop, then you'll know that was most likely the culprit. Again, if female is not returning, now would be the time to get a Van Ert trap for your house to trap the male & female HOSP. If you do, make sure you are monitoring every hour if possible so you don't trap a native bird. They can die in there if without food for too long. One of the previous posts left a website for the Van Ert trap. Again, the previous posts left great advice for your situation. This site is not as active as it used to be for bluebirders, so you may want to post to bluebirdnut.com. Lots of bluebird experts are on that site like this one used to have. That's where I go whenever I need advice. BTW, I lived in Atlanta for ten years (live in AL now). Very sorry to hear about your bluebird tragedy. Hope you'll have another pair come for a future nesting, but definitely get that sparrow spooker!
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dean4
Original Author
14 years ago
I live in SE GA. Almost in FL. I used to see nesting starting in mid to late March. Never in Feb before.
Dean
christy2828
14 years ago
Wow! Thanks for the response. This is my first year with BB's, they come every morning and check out the house but they haven't started to build a nest yet.
lisa11310
14 years ago
Welcome back Dean... YIKES I hope mine dont get here too early. I have a funny feeling the mild winter we had here is going to go out with a nasty roar.
janfarley
14 years ago
Hi all, I have 5 bluebird houses cleaned, up and ready to go. I live in Hickory, NC and have seen blue bird in the area for several weeks. They have been checking out the houses for 2 weeks now. Not building yet that I have seen. Can't wait to see them raise a brood again this year. We had two broods last year in two of the 5 houses. Happy bbirding all.
christy2828
14 years ago
I'm in Hertford, NC, and have been seeing them for several weeks as well. I just checked the box today and there is some nesting material in it!! I haven't seen them yet this morning, though.
lcmoore99
14 years ago
I've been gone for about a year since last year was not a good one for me and the bluebirds, thanks to my continuing problem with House Wrens.

Dean, I live in NW Georgia and as of today, I also have 2 bluebird eggs! They started the nest on Feb. 7th.

This is the earliest I have ever had eggs by at least 3 weeks to a month!

Linda...
Acworth, GA (NW of Atlanta)
kendra2003
14 years ago
Linda, I sure hope their early nest building will help with your HOWR problem. Usually HOWR are much later in their northward migration. Let's hope the weird weather doesn't make them migrate early too.
lori239
14 years ago
Dean, I am in Woodbine, just north of Kingsland. Are you in my area, or further west? Just wondering, we have 14 boxes to put up this year and I was thinking we had more time. Which of course we might. I am curious though, you don't have bluebirds year round? Thanks, Lori
dzyg
14 years ago
Linda, I am so sorry to hear about your bad year due to those nasty nasty birds. The year before last I had 12 of those dang birds, this last year I think only 8. Last year though down at the park where I have nestboxes, they did get to a Dees nest before I got the wren guard up. I was checking every other day, the Dees laid the egg on the day I didn't check and the wren poked the hole in it before I even knew they laid an egg Ugh!
dean4
Original Author
14 years ago
Been gone for a few days. We have 5 new bluebirds as of 3/13/12. Mom and Dad are busy feeding them mealworms. I just came from watching the nestbox. Just ordered another 5K mealworms because it looks like we'll need them. Perhaps I'll get a picture in a few days.

Lori,
I am in St. Marys so we are close.

eggs and nest already

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