Oh I just love the one of the male looking out from between the two tree trunks, he's got the cutest little face. I so wish I had blues in my yard, I sure hope the make an appearance in the spring and check out the nice box I put up for them.

Great photos!
Linda

Linda,
Thanks for your nice comments! I am so thankful that the blues are around. I had 2 pairs this summer and a total of 13 "new blues"! I hope you will get blues in your yard as well. What kind of box did you put up? With this being my first year, it has really become an addiction!

Mac

Nice pictures, Mac

I know what you mean by getting excited shooting pics of the blues. I have been doing it for 5 years now (several hundred pictures every day) and it still excites me when I see them in a nearby tree or on the deck or doing something out of the ordinary. My wife tells me I have enough and reminds me I have thousands I haven't looked at yet but it doesn't make any differece. I keep looking for more and better shots. :-)

Dave

Yep, taking pictures of your Blues can be so exciting and fun Mac, We know this too.

When we started last Summer, Dave's photos were a major inspiration to us. You might like to checkout his fabulous collection at http://www.pbase.com/uncledave. And everyone in the forums loves to see Bluebird pictures, so you get a lot of encouragement when you share them online. Now we usually take hundreds a day also... ever in quest of that better or more unusual shot. :)

Best of luck, and keep shooting!

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Kenn & Temple's Bluebird Gallery

Mac,Dave and Ken,
You are all very talented.I never miss the opportunity to see your pictures and enjoy them very much.I still have one of Dave's old pictures of one his Blues as my screen saver.Photography is NOT one of my talents.Thank you all for sharing your pictures with the rest of us.
michelle

Hi Mac,

I purchased the Ultimate Bluebird House from Duncraft this past August, it's very nice. It's mounted on a pole with a baffel, right behind my birdbath. The only thing is, yesterday I saw HOSP checking out the house and there was a female sitting inside the box. I walked out there and shooed them all away and within 20 minutes, I saw the female go back in the hole again. This time I went out, she saw me coming and fled, I then plugged up the hole.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now, I do not want HOSP nesting in this box, I'm at a total loss. I thought they didn't like the narrower boxes with no perches. I watched this fat female HOSP try for a long time to squeeze into the hole, I was hoping that she wouldn't fit but she finally did.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to discourage them? After I plugged the hole, a male tried to go in there and starting flipping out because the hole was plugged, he was looking everywhere for the hole, flying all around the box appearing very upset. Good, hopefully he'll take a hint and get out of town.

There was only a couple of small twigs in there and I quickly removed them.

Any thoughts or advice?

Bummed out in Massachusetts.

Linda

Linda,
Sounds like you have a very nice set-up there for your blues......except for the hosp. I wish I had some quick, easy answers for getting rid of them, but I don't. I know there are many on this forum who have a great deal more experience with bluebirding than I, and I know you will get some very good advice on how to handle the situation. Here are a couple of thoughts that I do have:
*check out the post from 9/29/08, "Please help...." by donnalovesblue. It is about this very subject. Unfortunately, hosps are problems for many of us.
*research as much as you can regarding this problem, learn about your options, and take action. It was my lack of knowledge and failure to take action that contributed to the death of 1 adult female and 6 babies this past summer.
*you might try starting a new message regarding this problem.
*please do not give up. I know it is sad, and frustrating, and maddening, when the excitement of a new bluebird house and hopes of nesting blues is somewhat overshadowed by hosp. But there are answers out there!
Good luck to you.
Mac

Hi Linda,

We probably shouldn't divert Mac's original post, but the HOSP dilemna is a real problem for nearly every Bluebirder. So once again I'd like to point to this great discussion currently on-going at the link below. You might also like to checkout the extensive info available at sialis.org.

best luck,

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Defending the box

Thank you Kenn and sorry Mac, I really didn't mean to hijack your post!

Linda,
No need for apologies. Hosp problems are very serious issues that need to be addressed.

Dave and Kenn,
Thanks for the comments. I have admired your photos since finding this site earlier this year. They are beautiful, inspirational, and educational!

Several months ago I saw a picture reference of juveniles @ "x" number of days (i.e @ 30 days, @ 45, etc.). Since then, while searching for that online source, all I come up with are pics of babies still in the nestbox. Dave, was that some of your pics that showed "older juveniles"? It was a good reference that I wish I could find again!

Do either of you have any suggestions for resources for learning more about taking digital pics? Something pretty simple? I have no photography background (obviously!), but am really wanting to learn. Online searches geared to my specific camera really hasn't produced much.

Thanks!
Mac

Hi Mac,

Dave did post a series like that not too long ago, and has better records over several seasons than anybody I know. Maybe he'll chime in here with a link to that.

We have tons of photos of all our 13 fledglings from this year, all in chronological order but with no specific age references and it's a mixture of shots from all three fledgings. I've put the link below if you'd like to have a look at those.

Here's one of our 3rd-nesters taken a few days ago. Hatched the first week of July, which makes her about 3mos old now:

As for bird photography sites, I don't know what camera(s) you use but the Canon POTN (Photography on the Net) site is a great place to learn.

Hth and good shooting,

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Bluebird Fledglings

Mac: Thanks for the compliment. When I first joined this forum I posted lots of pictures. More than 1,500, in fact over the initial 18 month period. For a variety of reasons, I rarely post here anymore. I still shoot lots of pictures however, and am working on several rather ambitious bluebird projects that demand a lot of time. For example, I am attempting to gather pictures of bluebirds in all kinds of weather and in all four seasons showing every possible aspect of their lives, including typical posed portraits, in flight shots, interaction with HOSPs, bathing, courtship, wing-waving, mating, nest building, egg laying, feeding nestlings and first flight. I expect the entire collection will approach 1,000 images.

Included will be a hundred pictures or so showing fledglings as they fly from the nest box and to document their training, growth and physical change from fledgling to juvenile to adult.

I attempted it last year and found the birds started moulting about age 45 days and finished at about age 95 days. I did it again this year and saw significant variation in the rate of change. While one bird is pretty much on track to finish at 95 days (he is at 86 days today and only has a few feathers remaining around the head and neck), his sister and brother began moulting 20 days before he did, and totally completed the process several weeks ago. So I will keep working on this to see which is more typical.

In the meantime, I do have a few pictures in one of the galleries on my PBase site called Watching Junior grow. It is not well organized but if you are interested, there is a link below. I also have a fledglings/juveniles gallery on my SmugMug site that I am adding to all the time. If you are interested I will post a link to that site also.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Watching Junior grow

Kenn,
I am definitely a fan of your pics. I check them out quite often. Beyond the beauty, I find them quite educational. They teach about behavior, the molting process, natural food sources, etc. (It has been your photos that caused me to dig up poke @ various locations and bring it home for my blues! Though I had probably read somewhere that blues like the berries, it was your pics that pounded it home for me. That's a visual learner for you!)
Thanks for the link regarding photography. I will definitely check that out!
Here is a photo of one of my blues that fledged July 4th. (At least I'm almost positive it's one of them. If I could only get them to wear the little name tags I made for them! ;) I found the differences between your juvie and mine quite interesting.

Dave,
Thank you so much for the link! I had seen those earlier in the season, and then when I wanted to see how my juvies compared, I could not find the source. And yes, I would love to have the link to your additional smugmug photos.

It sounds as though you have quite an undertaking with the project you explained! I would truly appreciate a resource such as that. I can only hope that once complete, it will be available for purchase! I have found myself totally captivated by these bluebirds. I find myself studying their sounds, behaviors, patterns, etc. (All of that questioning has actually led me to question "why have I become SO enthralled with these birds?
Hmmmmmmmmmm...........I guess it's neverending?)
Thanks again!