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# 2 family of Blues this year

14 years ago

My one little nest box sucessfully fledged 3 babies a while back. Nest #2 had 5 eggs, and babies hatched June 6th. I can't tell how manys eggs sucessfully hatched yet. I definitely see 3. Looking every day. I'll be able to tell more easily when they can hold their heads up better and I can see their mouths gaping. Love to check on their progress daily, despite the dive bombings I get!

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Comments (6)

sagrinin
14 years ago
That is great that you have had two nestings. I had one, but only two survived,, I think. As many times as I checked on the box, I was never dive bombed, but they would always come to the box and check when I left.
kendra2003
14 years ago
I had five fledge out of my first nesting, and the five babies from the second clutch are now 14 days old. This is the earliest I've had, so I'm hoping for a third clutch this season. Hopefully you'll get all five this time around.
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dzyg
14 years ago
I had six fledge from our first nesting...only four survived to return to the mealworm feeder though. Mom and Dad Blue are now feeding seven nestlings that are on day eight/seven right now..one hatched a day an a half later than the rest. I too am hoping for a third nesting...

Donna
renee1958
Original Author
14 years ago
I live in Coastal SC and have never had more than 2 nestings a season. We had a very warm spring and so far it's not been as hot as usual. Maybe I'll get three nests this season.
ohsoblue77
14 years ago
Nice to hear someone having so much success. I've never been lucky to fledge 2 nest in one season from a single pair. Not in MY boxes anyhow.

The only time a pair in my area raised 2 in one season I believe had the first brood in a natural cavity after being kicked out by HOSP, then I relocated the boxes later in the season and had 4-5 fledge.

But I HAVE had at least one family fledge all seasons except for my first. I almost had 2 pairs at different locations this season raise a brood but both attempts ended in failure around the same time. I have had nothing but bad luck the entire season.

~Tim~
wwwonderwhiskers
14 years ago
We moved into new construction last September 2011. Having seen BBirds moving around the area during construction, we put up boxes as soon as we could.
We're now on our second clutch in one box. The first bunch was 5 eggs, and we counted 5 chicks during nest-photo sessions, but we're not sure how many flew - we presume 5, but the runt maybe didn't make it that far. We were watching them come out that Sunday morning, but might have blinked and missed one. Since then, we definitely saw 4 juveniles moving around with the parents before the second nesting.

Now mama has 5 more chicks that looked to be a day or so on June 3rd.

Very interesting to see the difference in behavior of the adults between first & second clutch. We figure it might be the weather?? I have no idea. Had we not seen the whole gaggle of 6 hanging around while mom was checking out the house for the next round, I would swear it was a different set of adults.
The first time it was very chilly, and the parents would either remain on the nest while we did a box check, or later would fly up into the closest scrub-tree, then sit & make burbley noises at us the whole time we were taking worms out.
This time, it's much warmer, and she doesn't stay in the box when we're anywhere near. She flies WAY up high into a poplar about 80 feet away when there are many closer or higher trees, then we don't see her for awhile...

Very cool to see papa blue protecting that box. You might never see him for a long time, but just as soon as anyone comes into the area, he appears and monitors. We've seen him "go after" B.Jays couple of times.....

Enjoying this.

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