I have almost the same thing on one of my trails now,To give you some backround,Box"A" was up ,dees moved in and layed eggs,Then I saw a Tree swallow checking the box,so I put up Box "B" 10-15 feet away for the Tree Swallow knowing that they will nest in a paired box.Well the Tree Swallow does not show up again.The dees eggs hatch,5 nestlings.We get some wind a rain for a few days after.I monitor the dees box,only 3 nestlings,not sure what happened(bad weather or Wren) I let things be.2-3 days later only 2 chicks.About 1 week later I see a House Wren on Box "B" singing,adding sticks,I remove sticks every day for 4-5 days.The whole time the dees are defending Box "A" very good.Well today was fledge day for the dees.I go monitor the boxes from a distance,I see dees and House Wren hanging around,As I look closer I see a Tree Swallow peeking out of Box "B" and he is not budging.The Wrens are going nuts.A few hours later ,I again monitor from a distance,I do not see the dees ,today is day 16 (Fledged) for them.Now the the Wren have moved over to Box "A".The Tree Swallows remained in the entrance of Box"B" for the rest of the day,only leaving for very short times.So,Should I continue to deter the wrens,or should I expect these two to get along OK since the boxes are so close. Matt

mlkbskt...where are you located? I am in WI and we normally get two nestings per season. First one is just finishing up right now, babies are on day 17 today. If your pair are checking out the box again there is a very good chance they are planning on nesting again. Twice I had a pair that only nested once and they never checked boxes out but the pairs that were planning on nesting again have always checked the other available boxes. Mine sometimes take the same box and sometimes a different box, just depends on what is available and if their first nesting was successful or not. I normally see fledglings about 7-10 days after they fledge, that is about the time frame when they start following the adults more and will follow them to the feeder. Is this your first year with Bluebirds or have you had them before? Glad to see in your other post that you didn't open the nestbox to check on your Baby Blues, I knew you knew about sialis and read it but the wording made it sound like you had opened it. I almost opened the box to check the baby Blues on Saturday thinking it was day 13 but I looked at my notes again and realized it was day 14 so my last check had been on Friday and I wasn't going to risk looking again. Probably would have been ok though, they seemed a bit smaller than normal to me and here we are on day 17 and I haven't seen any peeking yet, mom and dad still going in the box at feeding time too. Maybe with six mouths to feed, they just need a little more time in there, hopefully they stay in there as long as they need to. I hate having non flyers at fledging time! I have 10 nestboxes on our property and 5 at a park near us. Had 46 TRES and 6 Chickadees fledge so far this season from them. Six baby Blues should be going any day now and just yesterday I found a new Bluebird nest being built in a box on our back property line. So I should have two second nestings of Blues...I know the pair nesting now will nest again as they have been checking out the houses and for the first time in the past six years I got the same female back that I had last year. Never had that happen before as they don't overwinter here. The reason I know this is because she isn't the normal blue of the bluebirds, she is more of a skyblue in color, plus I didn't have to train her to come to the mealworm feeder like I have always had to do before.

I've spotted them a few times now! They're mainly staying high in 3 tall cottonwood trees. They almost blend in with the leaves! I've also seen 2 take flights! For being so young, they're flying exceptionally well! Of course the parents get nervous and chatter whenever they see me, but it doesn't stop them from feeding. I've also noticed that they fly high to the tops of trees and sing when the local hawk shows up at the neighbors' bird feeder. Kendra, unfortunately I take on too many other things and it would take to much extra time and money I don't have for meal worms. Though I'd love to if I could. I usually see them a few times still weeks later, though not as much. ~Tim~

Very cute! So glad they came by so you could see them. I have the four that fledged here, on July 1st, coming up to the deck now (just yesterday) with the parents to be fed. Mine look like four girls but I am not sure, usually I can tell but this year I am having problems. LOL! Donna