Bluebirds are such fun to watch! Where do you live, Patti?

Patti,

We had a female sitting on top of our nest box 4-5 days ago and a male sat nearby. I didn't ever see her go in, and I haven't seen them since. *sigh*

Last year was our first year to put up a box - but we knew we had them in the area. The female laid eggs but then the couple abandoned the nest. Let's hope we both have better luck this year, eh?

I'm waiting to see my first robin. Yesterday I saw a bunch of crows.

I've seen robins and bluebirds lately. I've gotta stock up on mealy worms again.

Linda

I've seen one robin so far. My back door neighbor has a blue bird box, so I get to enjoy hers. I would like to feed them but I can't handle those worms. I tried with the dried ones and the bbs wouldn't touch them. They sometimes come and perch on my back deck. (The bbs, not the neighbors!)

Sue

Sue, I have a phobia about worms too. When my mother lived us I asked her to handle them, but when she moved out 2½ years ago I had to bite the bullet. I have a plastic spoon I dip them out with and keep it where I can touch only the handle and not the other end. One thing it has done is help me not to run screaming from all the earthworms I uncover while gardening. I still won't pick them up, but I will get a shovel and move them out of my way.
Linda ~ the big sissy

Lol at Sue. I have seen a number of bluebirds and this morning my DH pointed out 7 swans on the lake! My favorite birds are still the male cardinals. I love the color red.

Oh Patti, I'm excited for you. Yes, it's house sparrows that the Sparrow Spooker keeps away. I hope your kitty doesn't notice them too. It can have all the house sparrows it wants though.
It isn't early for them to be here, and looking around. They may build their nest, but they won't lay eggs until there are enough insects to feed the babies when they hatch. They call some people bird brained, but that isn't all bad I guess. At least they don't have kids until they can provide for them. LOL You could possibly have 3 batches of babies this year. But the 1st batch will be the largest.
Leslie
(I've gotta go up and check my nestboxes at the cabin.)

PS Patti, don't forget to put vasaline on the roofs of your nestbox to keep the wasps from building their nest in there. Rub it in, and wipe off the excess. Wasps are the only thing that will keep the Bluebirds from their eggs.
Leslie

Linda, for the mealworms, use a slotted spoon, or use a piece of hardwear cloth (do you know what I mean by that?) and put a scoop of mealworms and their bedding on that and shake it a little, and the bedding will fall through the holes but the worms won't. Then dump them in a glass dish and into the feeder. You don't have to touch them at all.
Leslie

I'm in North Carolina (Raleigh is about 20 min. north). Have been seeing bluebirds for a week now. They are back. They have been munching off my suet brick. I buy suet that has fruit and bugs in it. Yum!

We've also had TONS of kildeer the last few days! DH says that when they show up, spring has sprung.
:-)

Blues are my very best favorite bird EVER! They always look so sweet. We had them in CT for years and years. we had a box for them at the back of our lot and most years we would have at least two broods. They are a fun bird to watch. Good parents!

Now, we live on Cape Cod...not as many Bluebirds. But, two Sundays ago I saw my first flock of 7 birds at the suet feeder on my deck. I was so excited I could hardly run fast enough to get the camera. But...I made it in time...

Here are 3 of the 7.

I was a happy birder!

Yes, the House Sparrow is the bird you want to keep away from your Blues. A HS will kill a Bluebird or a Titmouse or a Chickadee as they sit on their eggs if they want that nesting box. HS are nasty little birds when it comes to nesting spots. We found that the closer our Bluebird nesting box was to your house, the more likely we were to have HS. We moved our nest box as far away from our house as we could but still be able to see it from our back deck. As long as we kept it there we did not have a problem with HS. I have heard that the Mylar streamers work. And Leslie is right...they LOVE meal worms...

Good luck! I hope your Blues come back.

sooey

Sooey, do you have a nest box for them?
House Sparrows will kill them as they set on their eggs, and they'll kill the babies too. They don't really want the nestbox for nesting either. They just don't want any competition in the area. You should eliminate all the house sparrows you can, before offering a nest box for them. Also, don't feed the other birds with cheap birdseed. Only use, Black oil sunflower seed, and Niger seed. House Sparrows goes for the junk seeds.
This will be my 15 season of monitoring my Bluebird trail of 14 nestboxes. I can't wait to get started. But, I don't think I can get to the cabin yet, for a couple weeks.
Also my Purple Martins will be coming soon. I have to get their house raised too, as soon as they show up.

Leslie

All we have here right now are those darn crows. They wake me up every morning.

I had to switch to black oil sunflower seeds and niger seed because the deer knocked down my feeders and stomped the cr@p out of them. I don't get the variety of birds I would get if I could use mixed seed. I throw scratch grains out to the chickens and the house sparrows help themselves to that. I also put out lots of oyster shell on the ground with it, and I can only hope the ESs are eating that as well and have shells so tough the eggs can't hatch!!

"I saw a blue bird this morning ...", said Pattico.

Not around here, you didn't!

See McPeg's pics (she's a ways north and east of here and got more snow than we - but the piles are rather high around the yard and lane.

Oh, well - I didn't plan to go anywhere, anyway.

ole joyful

Leslie...How wonderful to have a Bluebird trail! I have always had only one BB box up at a time but have always had good luck with it. A few years I had only Chickadees in it, but better that than HS. Here on the Cape I have no HS. I have worked hard at keeping them out of the yard. I count for PFW at Cornell so I feed all winter. I offer thistle, safflower, BOSS, sunflower hearts & suet...the HS are not interested. We are all birders in our neighborhood and keep a watchful eye & ear for any HS. My blood runs cold when I hear that chirp, chirp, chirp. That's when I get my sling-shot...and I'm a very good shot! A few years ago I watched as two adult male HS ganged up on a Chickadee, had it down on the ground pecking it until I jumped up and ran them off. I hate those awful birds! I am thankful that we do not have them here! But...I am always on the look-out!

Good for you sooey. Get some mealworms, and the bluebirds will stick around. Put them in a glass bowl close to where they like to perch, and they'll find them. Then everytime you put some out, give a little whistle, and they'll get used to your whistle and what your doing, and they'll come out of no where and eat.
Leslie

Hi Leslie,

Yep, that is exactly what I did in CT. I would feed them three times a day and always whistle as I was going out the door. I would whistle all the way down to the Droll hanging mealworm feeder and by the time I got to it, the Blues were in the trees, just over my head. I would dump some worms into the feeding tray, turn to walk back into the house and the Blues were at the feeder before I was 10 feet away. I ordered my mealworms from a place on the web...Sunshine? I would order the largest amount they would deliver. The Blues stayed in our part of CT all winter so I went through a lot of mealworms.

sooey

I need to order some mealworms, but I'll wait until it isn't freezing here. I ordered them to early last year, and they froze. They replaced them though. I go to ReptileFood.com
I bet we have the same feeder too. That's what my BB's do too.

That Droll is a great feeder for mealworms. The tray is covered, the worms can't crawl out and the Blues can see them. Two years ago, the last year I had my box up, the last of the baby baby Blues to fledge would come to that feeder and sleep in the tray. Mom and Dad would sit in the trees above and watch over them until they were finished with their nap. It was a sight to seem.

sooey

So at the risk of sounding really dumb, do you guys have a special nesting box for the blue birds or just a run of the mill birdhouse? Also, what exactly is a droll that you put the mealworms in? I saw 4 or 5 blue birds at my one birdhouse early last spring, I had never seen them before. They hung around for a couple days then I never saw them again. I'd love to try to get them to come back this spring and stay. Thanks.
Katlan