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blumz_gw

The Rest of the Story

15 years ago

Many of you may remember a couple months ago I posted that, after the first family of blues fledged, I cleaned out the old nest and the box. A couple of weeks later I saw the male and female entering the box pretty regularly and the female staying for extending periods. I could see a strand of pine needle poking out of the bottom of the door, so I assumed they were building a new nest. So I opened the box to check only to discover NO NEST but two fresh eggs lying on the bare floor of the box. There were a couple of pieces of pine straw in the box like they had started building, but the eggs were coming faster than they could build. I waited to see if they would complete the nest, but they did not. Some of you suggested that I carefully lift the eggs, form a nest for them using the pine needles they always use, and replace the eggs. It seemed like a great idea to me, so I carefully lifted the eggs without touching them, and built the nest as good as I could, as much like the ones they build as possible. The next day they were there checking it out. The were a little bit frenzied and chattering away, obviously confused, even though the eggs were plainly right in sight in the center of the nest. After a day or two of checking it out, they never returned to the box. They would come for meal worms, but never checked the box again. I eventually cleaned out the box and threw the eggs away. I knew they had been there long enough that they were no longer viable. It was so sad. I will always wonder what they would have done if I had not built a nest for them, but we do the best we can with the info we have at the time. It seemed like a great idea to me. I guess I just don't think like a blue bird. Hopefully, I'll have a new family next year.

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