Miss my Bluebirds

by Jeanie
(Gulfport, MS)

I recently had the pleasure of watching a pair raise a clutch of 5. I provided mealworms almost daily once I knew the birds had hatched.

When the parents fed the mealworms to the babies, the Mother would often fly to a nearby shepherd's hook and look at me as if to say "is that all?"

When my daughter was around she would of course go and get more mealworms for her. This became a routine. They fledged day before yesterday (4/26/09), and it took all day.

The first bird fledged at 2:00. The second one took so long that the first fledgling finally flew to my roof just above the nest and sat there calling along with the parents.

The second bird finally came out at 4:20. The next two flew the coop at 5:30 & 6:15. At nearly dusk I finally went inside.

I don't know whether the last bird left that evening or the next morning, but I did go out and put some mealworms in their dish before I left for work and the parents promptly showed up, filled their beaks with as many worms as they could cram in and flew off to some woods across the street.

I went outside to water my yard yesterday afternoon and as usual, the mom appeared and waited patiently for me to go back inside to get mealworms. They certainly have me trained.

After I was certain that the last bird was gone from the nest, I did take down the old house and put up a new one. The old one was not of a good design and was not constructed for easy monitoring.

It opened from the bottom of one side and closed down upon the nest, so I decided not to use it again. I hope this doesn't cause them not to nest there again.

I was careful to put the new one exactly where the old house was. The new house was approved by the bluebird society. My only reservation was that it has an inside predator guard just inside and below the hole which might be great, but it is so different from the old house that I hope it doesn't deter them.

I did notice that the nest was very dirty as was the entire inside surface of the old house. They were pretty crowded in there and I am pretty sure they were at least 18 or 19 days old when they finally fledged.

I will be watching and keeping my fingers crossed for them to return and build another nest. I took pictures and will post them if any of the pictures come out clear.