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My suburban success story for Bluebirds!

katiedidcottage

15 years ago

I don't like to look but I just had to a few minutes ago and there are now 2 BB eggs in the birdhouse I put up in the front yard about 5 feet from the house and 3 feet from a tree - out of view of the other 2 BB houses I have. I had a pair checking it out for about a month before last week when they finally started building a nest and now the eggs!

There are 5 BB babies about to fledge in a week in the BB house I put on the side yard.

3 baby Carolina Chickadees about to fledge from the BB house in the back yard BB house. Hopefully bluebirds will take over this house next time.

So far they are having great success!! I am so thrilled! We are hopefully having a little bluebird explosion around here!!

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Comments (6)

nikonhead
15 years ago
Thats great best of luck to you and the BB. Keep us posted on how everything is going.
bandjzmom
15 years ago
Wonderful news katie!!! Congrats and thank you for helping the Bluebirds at your house. Don't be afraid to monitor your boxes. It really is an important part of being a successful hostess. Sometimes, things are going awry, and there are measures that we can take to help to set things right. The more that you are in the yard with your Blues, the less skittish they will be when you come to check. Check out what the sialis site has to say to us about monitoring. Keep us posted on your progress!~~Angie

Here is a link that might be useful: Bluebird Nestbox Monitoring/Sialis
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compost_hugger_nancy
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bandjzmom is so right!!! Monitoring the BB boxes is critical, especially if you have house sparrows (english imports) naturalized in your area or starlings!! They will do havoc on the nest and a dead hatchling can cause illness for others. Ants, snakes and "other critters" are called to a box by decomposition odors as well which put the living siblings at risk of being killed and eaten.

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katiedidcottage
Original Author
15 years ago
Appreciate the good advice. The other boxes have been monitored, but the female of that partciular pair was more skittish than usual. The male had shown her the nest several times over about 3 weeks and she just didn't want to be there because it is such close proximity to my front door and us walking around to our garden. We sit around out front and the other pair sees us, but they are still very hesitant to go into the house while we are there but I love that they are getting used to us. Hopefully, they will all be safe while we are out of town for a few days. :-/ This concerns me, but family responsibilities are calling.
kendra2003
15 years ago
This is very exciting news. Make sure you have your sparrow spooker up before you leave town. Hope all goes well for you and the Blues.
dzyg
15 years ago
Congrats on all the birds. I think your box is too close to the tree though...three feet is not very far. A squirrel can easily jump from there or a raccoon. Are there any overhanging branches? I sure hope they have a successful nesting!

Donna

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