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Not able to monitor

16 years ago

I have a question for you more experienced Bluebird landlords. I have hosted other birds, but never had Bluebirds nest here before. The Bluebird babies are 13 days old today. I will not be here tomorrow, so I wanted to do a final nest check today (no monitoring after day 14 right?) When I got near their box, they started dive bombing me in earnest. I tried ducking down and being still to seem less intimidating, but they would have none of it! They kept coming to within inches of my head. I finally gave up. They scolded me from the trees before when I did nest checks, but never ganged up on me like this. Is this unusual? I know other people take pictures when their Bluebird babies are this age, but I couldn't get close enough to the box.

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Comments (7)

dzyg
16 years ago
Wear a hat and it won't seem so intimidating. My first year with Blues was the only year I had terrible divebombers other years they were much more tolerant and just scolded me. We have TRES so Blues divebombing never seems as bad anymore. TRES get really really close when they divebomb and usually if there are other TRES around they join in the bombing mission. It is nuts with the TRES. I say go look but wear a hat and you probably will feel better. They won't hit you cause if they did they could injure themselves.

Donna
kendra2003
Original Author
16 years ago
Oh my! Thank you so much for your reply Donna. I hosted TRES last year and they never dive bombed me like this. I seriously thought these Blues were going to make contact. As long as you're sure they won't actually injure themselves (or me), I will try again with a hat. I'll let you know if I'm successful. I appreciate your advice.
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kendra2003
Original Author
16 years ago
Donna,

I tried the hat thing, which did make me feel safer. This time only the female dive bombed me, and much less aggressively than when they were both doing it, so I managed to get a peek in there. I couldn't even open the box more than a crack. Those babies have gotten big! I didn't dare open it more than a crack because I was afraid one would fall out. I took this picture (terrible quality, I know) to show just how stuffed that box now is. And they should still be in there for five more days.
dzyg
16 years ago
How cute, glad you were able to take one last peek. Are there five in there? One year as I was monitoring a nest with five babies I would always hold my hand up to the nest as I was opening the door for fear of some falling out but they never did. They do get pretty crammed in there, don't they?

Donna
ohsoblue77
16 years ago
You've got a pretty cute bunch there!

The tree swallows here dive at me every day...it's kinda embarassing! My blues have scolded and dived a little bit ESP when these eggs were about to hatch...it's pretty normal...ESP. near fledging...but you want them to be defensive...mine have taken the swallows to the ground!

I almost had a swallow fall out once. I peeked and he was right against the door!
Tim
kendra2003
Original Author
16 years ago
Yes Donna, there are five in there. They will be really crammed in right before fledging. Thanks so much again for your help.
Tim, I thought the one crammed near the door would fall out, and that's why I only opened it a crack. He/she was stuck right up against the door.
lisa11310
16 years ago
They look great! I bet these babies go on the earlier side rather than the later. They look about ready (prolly why you got so much crap from the parents) LOL!

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