I would have like that to come out larger and WITH the post, but oh well.

Congrats on your nestlings. If today is day 12 you shouldn't be opening up the box anymore unless you suspect a problem. You could make them fledge prematurely by opening the box after day 12. After they are that age you just observe from afar and don't open nestboxes up anymore. Since you had so many problems getting successful nestings I am sure you don't want to do anything to harm this nesting.

Donna

That's true Donna, but I've held these guys twice and took them out for a nest change. That, and I've visited them every day. I've only had them fledge on a check when they were in the 17-20 day fledge range. The first time I checked their bodies for blowfly

I will reduce my checks or even quit, but I'd like to continue as I've done day-to-day photos for an album. Last year they sat on the rim of the nest so what I did *and could do, since it's the same box* is unscrew the roof and get photos. My experience is that if you check them as often as I do, there's little chance they will prematurely fledge even after day 12 or 13. Too many people are just going by Sialis and disregarding other experiences. You must remember, the books can be re-written.

Plus the bluebirds are to blame mainly for failed attempts this year...they kept laying low egg counts, poorly or not at all incubating, or quit laying in general. This female must be either really young or really old. But also...another weird thing I have a question about that also puts the books in question! ONLY THE FEMALE IS TAKING CARE OF THE YOUNG! The male is not feeding AT ALL! He's not dead because I've seen him a couple times with Missy and he sits out away from the box mostly all day and sings really loudly. He went to feed once but fluttered infront of the box and gave up. Could these sparrow spookers be causing an inexperienced parent to not feed out of fear? Or is my male bluebird a terrible parent??? My bluebirds are acting real strange this season but no one and no book can seem to explain it. Things are NOT so set-in-stone like the books claim. The things I've experienced this nesting season with my blues is very unusual! This is my 5th season with them and I've never seen anything like it!

Ok, these are wild birds, not pets. They are cute and we become very attached to those we monitor closely but you have to remember they are wild, they are not tame and shouldn't be tame. You can do blowfly inspections of the nests very easily without holding one of the baby birds. Besides the fact that blowflies normally feed at night and drop off the babies and go into the nest during the day. Just because you haven't caused any major problems yet doing this doesn't mean it won't happen. Monitoring nests is done to prevent problems but there are guidelines that should be followed and checking them when they are close to fledging without suspecting a problem is really a very self centered thing to do. Photo ops are not a reason to open a nestbox when you could cause them to fledge prematurely. Yes books can be rewritten but you seem to have forgotten they were written from experience. I have often checked nests every day up until day 13 then I have stopped and I don't touch the babies to do checks. Once, just once I did a blowfly inspection of a nest on day 14 and you know what happened? Later that day one of the 14 day old nestlings fledged and he couldn't fly a lick and ended up spending the night in our garage as we didn't know he was there until the next morning. I put him back in the box which then cause another to try to fledge and that one couldn't fly either, also the first baby fledged again. I had to put a hole reducer on the box to keep them in there and I hated to do that. Had I not opened that box on day 14 (and I did not touch the babies, just inspected the nest and lifted it slightly) I would not have had to put the reducer on. I took the reducer off on day 16 and they all fledged, one still couldn't fly very well though but the other three could. They did all make it though but it was lucky cause I know that one spent at least that first night on the ground. Fledgling day could have been way later had I not opened that box and the babies would not have been put in harms way because of something I did. I now do all my blowfly inspections (of the nest not the hatchlings) during the first 12 days from hatching and around day 7 I take a turner and lift the nest up and brush out the bottom dust on the nestbox floor, this is where the larva would be when they are tiny. I really think you are setting yourself up for heartbreak if you cause something bad to happen to one of your nestings because of unneeded monitoring and touching the babies. I hope you don't but you really might one of these days.

Good luck to you and your Blues!

Donna

I understand where you are coming from Donna, but nest failures in my boxes in the past 2 - 3 seasons have been out of my control. I can't control the blue's actions, how many eggs they lay, if they incubate them properly,if a male bluebird FAILS to be a good parent, the weather, etc.

I lost a full clutch last season to one day of 52 degree and below temperatures. The parents didn't feed the nestlings the evening before when it was 70+ DEGREES! My other site which I adopted from relatives had boxes mounted on fence and were infested with HOSP. There was a predation loss there and I had to re-mount the boxes.

Also, with the blowfly thing...I live in Ohio and we were a victim state to the awful heat wave that went through the country. I lifted the nest up when they were 10 days old and there were TONS of blowfly! Bear in mind that my boxes are in FULL SUN ALL DAY. unless you have tall trees, I don't see how you avoid nest boxes placed in full sun. They are to be AWAY from trees which predators can jump out of and defeat pole baffles. And away from dense brush as this is where the HOWR wreaks havoc. The combination of heat and blowfly could have been enough to kill them! I would much rather monitor and take the chances than find an entire clutch of dead nestlings. I guess my point is that I'm not trying to treat them as pets. I also have TRES young and compared to the bluebirds, they show fear when monitoring now. So I've decided to stop as you can hear them well and both parents feed. So, with one parent feeding, heat, and blowfly, shouldn't there be some exceptions??? Better safe than sorry!!!

I'm not saying you shouldn't monitor, because I totally think monitoring is a good thing up to a point. If you have blowflies than you should do a nestchange and at day 10 like you stated that would be the correct thing to do. What I am saying is that you shouldn't open the box up after day 12/13 for photos, that is silly. "If" you suspect a problem after day 12/13 then yes you can open the box carefully to see what is wrong but only if you think something is wrong, not because you want to see the nestlings. It sounds like alot of your losses were beyond your control so I am not sure why you think checking them daily after day 13 is something you should do. I guess I just don't understand that. I know from experience that premature fledgling can happen and it isn't a good thing, you may be putting those babies in danger by opening the box that late. Observing from a distance after day 12/13 is what should be done....as long as you see the parents feeding things should be fine. Oh and I did loose nestlings to blowflies also so I know in some areas nests should be checked for them but that can be done up until day 12/13 after that if you have lifted the nest and cleaned them out the babies should be fine and strong enough. Also in a larger clutch of babies normally blowflies aren't a problem, it is with smaller clutches that death can occur. less than 10 blowfly per nestling is ok and shouldn't cause death, more than that and it can. I once had a nesting of three and on a nestcheck on day 9ish found two dead babies, thankfully one still alive. I did a nestchange to find at least 60 larva in there, it was awful. That one baby didn't stand a chance in there but it went on to fledge successfully after the nestchange.

Good luck!
Donna

Well in the future I do not plan to monitor much after day 12-13.

Donna, although this is really late, all 3 bluebird fledgings and Swallows all fledged successfully! I got to see at least 1 or 2 take their first flights! One went REALLY high up! Like, 30 - 60 feet in the air! Literally! Then it flew into a tree.

Although at my site there was only 3 blues fledged this season, and 4 at my other, It was a successful season:)