Lucky You I'm praying we make it to day 6 with the wrens here. This is day 3 or 4
Cathy

Linda, I will be keeping all parts crossed until yours reach 6 days. good luck.

A

Anita, when my friend who lives less than 2 miles from me set up her in-box cam three years ago we learned things that we never would have dreamed of before the days of nest cams! She was GLUED to the TV monitor, sometimes in the middle of the night just watching them sleep, and I spent well over 12 hours at her house during that first nesting! LOL! I have a key to her house and would go in and out during the day and just sit and WATCH!

I got to see four babies hatch, got to see the momma blue remove a dead baby after she peeled the shell of the baby and so much more! She also taped a lot and I sent the hatching tape to Malinda. Yep, those cams allow us to see things that have gone on forever but till now, we were clueless!

Cathy, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, too!!!!!

Time for an update: The three babes are now 9 days old, one of them is 12 hours younger than the others. They are feathered and acting more like big birds now. I see speckles on them too. The area along their backs under the wings are still pink. They seem to be chirping a little and grooming themselves a little. They are moving about and stretching, too. A while ago one of them was lying with his or her head flopped backwards and I could see a very cute pink neck. Is it normal for young birds to rest with their heads back like that? I also see bright button eyes blinking open and closed just like mom. they are getting cuter by the day and we are thoroughly enjoying this experience. I put the light on today to see if I could see color, meaning if they are boys or girls. It's hard to tell, but i'm going to shut the light off before nighttime so they can get their beauty rest!

Anita
PS, I have new neighbors next door who are away. They asked me to water their plants on the deck, and to my dismay I found that there are 2 sparrow nests, one on each end of the roof :( I'm going to put out a trap and see if I can catch some of them. darn it all.

anita

And Another thing - now when the mother sits on top of the babies, they poke their heads out from underneath her so you see mom on top with little bird heads sticking out on the sides. So cute. I've GOT to stop! You will all be happy to know that I have to go to work tomorrow :)
A

Ok it's tuesday(11 days old) now and the birds are definitely stretching their wings and looking all grown up. When I got up this morning mama was not on the nest. I'm curious to see when she stops staying with them. She was with them last night but I didn't check later to see if she stayed all night. One chick was wrestling (or playing?) with a piece of straw or grass this morning. It looked like it was going down his throat. I thought he was unhappy, my husband thought he was playing with it. It's gone now so I don't know if the mother removed it or the baby just let it go. Also we just saw a sparrow looking into the nestbox - here we go. My new neighbor has 2 sparrow nests on either side of his roof. I have my trap out and will start today trying to catch them. I hate doing this.

Today is day 14 and the mother is still spending the night with the babies. Hoping that I will be home to see them fledge next week.

Anita:
Thanks for keeping us updated, I really enjoy my minicam, The female has laid 5 eggs and I hope she lays one more tomorrow to make it six again. The bird box is near the shed near the parking spot in the trailer park, I've got the minicam hooked up to an old VCR in the shed and a video cable and electrical cord running out to an old TV. I'm planning on leaving it on all the time even during night, (exceptions bad weather). I've told a few people in the park and hope to tell a few other people about it so they can walk on down to the trailer/shed and check it out whether I'm there or not. I've also have put a calendar out there in a zip lock bag to let other know when the eggs were laid and etc. Also I printed out a section of the Sialis web page on Bluebird timetables. Hopefully others will take notice.
Well good luck.
Keith
p.s.---got meal worms Wed and am training them now.

Anita, just saw this thread, I love hearing about the babies growing. Ugh on the sparrows, do you have a sparrow spooker up?

Donna

Keith said:
"p.s.---got meal worms Wed and am training them now. "

What are you training your mealworms to do? LOL
I'm sorry, I couldn't help asking.
Tammy

Tammy,
I'm training my mealworms to wiggle and cry out for attention from the Bluebirds.
LOL
Keith

GOOD MORNING, we are back from Boston. My daughter is officially graduated from college! We had a beautiful weekend and now I have a few days to breathe before she comes home to roost!! In the nestbox I have three 18 day old young birds. Mother was NOT on the nest with them when we checked last night. These babies are stretching and flapping their wings. It looks like at least one of them is a boy. Mother doesn't come all the way into the nest to feed them but she still comes all the way in to take sacs and do other housekeeping. (I thought they stopped going into the nestbox when the babies were a certain age.)
I also noticed that the babies do not all gape when parent comes. If one has been fed recently he might not open wide for more food while the others do. They are also getting out of the nestcup and sitting up more. I haven't seen any peeking out the door though, so I don't think they are ready to leave. It's pretty cold here so I'll see what happens today. Probably tomorrow will be the day.

Anita

8:30 pm they are all settled down for the night after an exhausting day (for me!!) of stretching and preening and hopping up to look outside, eating and generally being restless. I think tomorrow will be the day they fledge. I'm so sad to think about them leaving the safety of the nest but we know that's what is meant to be. See you tomorrow! By the way I'm pretty sure they are all boys - I turned the bright lights on today to have a good look and they all look like boys to me.

I woke up early this morning 4ish - couldn't sleep and got up to check on my sleepy boys. They were all tucked in. Mom and Dad have been feeding them on and off and they are flapping their wings vigorously and sitting in the doorway to the world for a few moments at a time. When I left for work at 8, they were still in the nest. Will check at lunchtime.

Anita

Oooh, today could be the day! Day 19, right?? Hope you get to see them! Last year my little sole survivor left the nest in the evening of day 19 and I beleive the year before that I had babies leave the afternoon of day 19.

Donna

At noon they were all still cozy in their nest. Mine have always left on the 19th, and the ones I've seen go have always gone in the morning. Maybe not these but I will be watching the All Blue All the Time Network as soon as I get home from work! When my husband gets home I may go out and sit by the box with my camera while he monitors the tv. We are quite the Eyewitness Team! Not as good as Linda but we try! :) and shoot it's starting to look like rain.

I'm home - it's 3:21 AND the nest is empty. Hooray little birds, fly away and be free. I hope they stay safe and I see them again soon.

The End