"Oh no, the nest's filled with water?! ... oh wait??! It's baby birds!!!" -- Western Bluebird Nestbox Monitoring - May 5th, 2017

Friday 2017-05-05 (11am-noon): Oh my gosh ... "our" first baby birds. We had a busy weekend coming up, so my folks checked the nestboxes a bit early this week. I'm so bummed that I didn't get to see the big reveal of the first nestlings!!:

Box #1: An all-stick nest has been started in this box, which I think could be a Wren?

Some new nest-building activity has occurred at Box #1.

Box #2: Once again the box is empty, a small Vespid nest was removed, and lye soap re-applied to the box's upper interior.

Box #3: I'm surprised that this box still does not have any Tree Swallow eggs. My Dad moved the nestbox a few inches further up the pole.

The nest in Box #3 is still empty.

Box #4: A female Bluebird was sitting on the nest when the box was opened! So, no egg count was done this week. The area around Boxes 4 thru 6 had been recently mown.

Box #4.

Box #5. Remains empty.

Box #6. Once again, there was a bird sitting on the nest when the box was opened. And, we're learning that this can be difficult to realize this at first, because the box interior is so dark and the bird is low in the nest! From the quick pictures, it looks to have been a Tree Swallow, as expected from the 5 white eggs that were seen in this nest last week. No egg count was conducted this week. Unfortunately, there may have been a predation event at this box?: There were many white feathers on the ground immediately in front of the box.

Box #6: A Tree Swallow actually remained on the nest during the check of the box!

Box #6: Another close-up of the Tree Swallow on its nest.

Box #7: A nest has finally been started in this box, and the Tree Swallows were rather aggressive around this nestbox. This brings the site up to six out of ten boxes occupied.

Box #8.

Box #8: Five eggs now!

Box #8: A Tree Swallow was seen leaving the box as we approached. One more egg has been added since last week, for a total now of 5. The area around this box was recently mown, and it is no longer swampy ground.













Box #9: When my Dad opened the box, he apparently said, ""Oh no, the nest's filled with water?! ... oh wait!??? It's baby birds!!!" There were four Bluebird hatchlings, all crammed together. They are all mouth! We think there's four heads in the picture:

Box #9 ... it's almost unbelievable what's inside ...:

Box #9. "Our" first hatchlings, Western Bluebirds.

I'm guessing the hatchlings in Box #9 might be about 3, or maybe 4, days old ... which means my "earliest hatch date prediction" of about 5/1 was pretty good! So, the earliest they might fledge is 5/19 ...

Box #10: Remains unchanged, with no eggs.