Would a baffle deter parents after eggs are laid?

13 years ago

My neighbor put a baffle on their bb house pole after eggs were laid. He thought the bb's weren't coming back after that but left it on a few weeks, then removed the baffle. Now there is one nestling (at least, that is all he could see) and some unhatched eggs. It is my belief that a baffle would not deter the bluebirds from tending to their eggs/nest, even after egg laying, any input on this? We live in a very "snakey" area in SE GA and he doesn't believe snakes can climb a pole. I told him they definitely can, and he said "well, it never happened before". I will be forwarding him any comments I might receive! Thanks very much.

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Comments (4)

bigmatt
13 years ago
A baffle would NOT deter a pair.It is Obvious the pair has accepted the baffle,the eggs have started hatching.It is crazy to remove a baffle.The baffle was installed just after egg laying,and now there are nestlings,Something had to incubate the eggs.I sure hope your neighbor decides to listen to you ,and reinstall the baffle.A snake would have no problem at all climbing a pole with no baffle.
lisa11310
13 years ago
Baffle needs to go back on ASAP. Send the neighbor to www.sialis.org to learn about his birds. As stated the baby would not have hatched it the Mom was not attending the eggs. Your advise was 100% correct, his decision could be deadly to the babies!
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No, it was a bluebird birdhouse with a 24" baffle! I have 14 birdhouses, only 4 have wiring and rest have baffles. Now I have improved it for better protection - 4' baffle instead of 2'. About the electric fence wire - I just wrote on the birdwatching forum about the Brown thrasher nest with same electric fence wire setup to help protect the bush from snakes (I posted pictures) http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bird/msg0622391128646.html Yesterday I saw a snake touch it, and it got zapped and backed up very quickly! I'm still not 100% sure this border will work if there is a more stubborn snake, or with a small snake that could squeeze under it, but now I know it IS working and a snake DOES get shocked from an electric fence wire when it's body is on the grass (the grass was dry). The pole has more wiring than the border, so now I think the electric fence wire may even be better than a baffle, at least better than the recommended small 24" baffle. Also, the birdhouse in the first picture (at the top of this page) has both - the baffle and wire, as I wrote last Sunday It's strange, but in all the years I have lived here I have never had so many LARGE snakes in the yard at one time. I left a chicken egg in the barn last night for "snake detection" and also to help keep their belly full, so they might be less creative about how to get birds. The egg was gone this morning. Tonight I'll leave more. I feel like I'm in the "Snakes on a Plane" movie :)
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Good news you got the second egg! Ok and I could bite my tongue that I said I wanted rain. We did get some last night, not much but I would rather have done without that storm that came through WI. OMG it was awful, the winds were so strong, our yard was littered with branches this morning, lost half of a large silver maple tree, smashed a ceramic birdbath I had, knocked over and off the deck several potted plants. I went out to save one plant and I thought I was going to get either blown off the deck or that something was going to hit me. I heard something about 70mph winds. I couldn't sleep worrying about the bluebirds either and my worry was unfortunately well founded. Momma Blue was injured last night and is now only using one leg. I have no clue what is wrong with it or if it will heal or not, she is holding it up against her. She had started a new nest yeserday but hasn't resumed that at all today but she is feeding the fledgings. Not sure if they are all out there yet or not, they fledged on Wednesday. I thought I saw three of them today but I am not sure and they have now taken them to the neighbors yard. I do have two eggs now in the other Blues nestbox so I think they made it through the storm ok. Donna
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dzyg
13 years ago
I also agree with everyone else, that baffle needs to get back on there asap. The baffle will not scare the adults off. I don't think it would even affect them if it was put on before egg laying commenced. We luckily don't have snakesaround here but we do have raccoons and there are raccoons everywhere whether people see them or not or think they have them or not. We had some boxes that didn't have baffles on them, normally TRES nested in them and for some reason we never had problems when TRES nested. This year the Blues took one of those boxes and I was lax on getting the baffle intstalled, it should have been on there to begin with but never was. Well of course a raccoon climbed the 1/2 conduit and got two of the five babies one night. Thankfully the conduit must have been hard to hold onto and that was all it got. I could see the hair and grass stuck to the pole going up and the nest was a mess and two babies were gone, that is why I knew it was a coon. I got a baffle on that pole immediately the day I found that and had to take the babies out and fix the nest. Two days later there was a raccoon paw print on the baffle, but it didn not try to climb up with the baffle on. The remaining three would have been lost too had I not had a baffle on.

Just cause it never happened before doesn't mean it won't happen. Tell your neighbor he doesn't want to learn the hard way that it will and can happen any time!!

Donna
lori4bluebirds
13 years ago
I've got LOTS more to learn. :) (Always.) I'm glad to have found this forum - AND the Sialis site.

Lori, my husband didn't want to believe it, either - until a MAN ;) at work told him that he saw the sides of his aluminum purple martin house bulging from a huge snake inside. Still, hubby decided we were okay, despite knowing there were snakes around. ... UNTIL we went to check on our 34 martin nestlings and found only 29 plus a full snake. :(
I'm going to find a baffle and install it myself, because he STILL wants to do it other ways. Really sticky stuff on the poles, but after a year, it gathered dirt, etc., and is no longer sticky.

All this to say, I hope your neighbor listens to you. ... Is there a MAN who can share the info with him? LOL.

Another Lori. :)

Would a baffle deter parents after eggs are laid?

Comments (4)

bigmatt

lisa11310

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dzyg

lori4bluebirds

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