OH NO!! The Tree Swallows are back in Michigan

14 years ago

we are having amazing waether...going to be 87 today...BUT it is only March and VERY early for the TRES to be back :/ They are flying around the nest box they used last year. Lisa...get ready!!

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Comments (4)

lisa11310
14 years ago
Aw crap!!!!! I thought I heard one in the distance yesterday but figured I had lost my mind. I'm not ready for them yet! I have a pesky HOSP that I'm hunting and he just brought a female with him. Hes not bonded to a box yet. My 22 is ready now I will have to worry about the TRES too. The TRES usually play around at the lake awhile before they come to the boxes,lets hope I can get the HOSP before the TRES settle in.
dzyg
14 years ago
I've had a TRES here since Saturday the 17th, in Central WI. Monday there were two but now we are back to one again. It isn't doing much house hunting yet, just hanging around. Will be the first year the Blues (that are house hunting already) will get their choice of nestboxes cause normally the TRES are here first.

Lisa, I am messing with two friggin male HOSP, got one with the BB gun yesterday but I missed the other one this morning, feathers flew but he flew away just fine. Have the vanert set for him now as he was in a box just a bit ago. Ugh!

Donna
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I went out today to check the TRES house to see if another egg had been laid. As I stood next to the house, I could hear the Mother flitting about inside. So I knocked on the side of the house to see if she would fly out. She stuck her head out and looked right, then left where I was standing. She staired at me for maybe 30 seconds (as if to say, "yes, may I help you"). She disapeared back inside. Again I knocked. She stuck her head back out and looked straight at me for another 20 to 30 seconds. She went back in, so I opened the box and looked in with my mirror. She was hunkered down on those eggs and nothing I could do was going to pry her off. She had some real moxie, some real chutzpah. I closed the box and walked back to the house. I am still smiling and laugh out loud every time I picture this in my mind. Can you imagine the nerves of steele it took for this little bird to protect her eggs from this big hulking monster (me) looking at her and her eggs. What an inspiration and life lesson these little birds can teach us. Phil
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lisa11310
14 years ago
Donna my Blues are always earlier than the TRES usually 2-3 weeks. I hope this darned HOSP hurries up and picks a box so I can put him out of our misery!
dzyg
14 years ago
Well I got the female HOSP with the van ert but then the male would not go in the box again. Took the trap back out yesterday afternoon and am just watching if I need to put it back in again.

Oddly here my TRES always seem to return either at the same time as the Blues or just before. This morning I saw three TRES flying around, they really aren't mobbing the boxes at all yet though.

Good luck with your HOSP...

Donna

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OH NO!! The Tree Swallows are back in Michigan

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lisa11310

dzyg

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