On the 11th of April, I trotted by the Washington Co. Fish and Game HQ to see a female bluebird exit a very decrepit nesting box nailed low on a tree in the front lawn.
Oh no. Not on a tree. Not that low.
I approached the box and touched the roof as I peered into its entry hole. Part of the roof came off in my hand. Worse yet, the box was pulling off the tree, and you could see the bluebird's pretty little nest inside. So could the 4" of rain that had fallen in the last few days.
The nest was lined, which meant she'd start laying in the next couple of days!
So on the 12th of April, I took action. There was no way I was going to let a perfectly good clutch of bluebird eggs be laid in that wreck, so vulnerable to weather, snakes, coons, cats, mice, squirrels. Ugh.
Bill and I came out early in the morning with a brand new box and a plan.
The female bluebird was sitting in the tree right overhead, her bill full of soft nest lining materials, as I took her nest out of the rotten box and tore the box off the tree. Well, I didn't have to tear it. It literally fell off in my hand when I opened the front.
The wet spot on the lower part of the tree is where it was. In the upper box, house sparrows are already ensconced.
Quickly, we put up a brand new box, protected from climbing predators by a 2' long stovepipe baffle, well out from under the canopy of the tree, about 20' away.
April 12: I hold the nest in my hand, noting that she's incorporated a Fish and Game Club Spring Derby bulletin in it! And I put it in the new box.
New box, in place. Old box, gone. Now to cross our fingers and wait. I was taking a risk by moving the nest at this critical juncture, but it was a calculated risk, informed by 33 years of managing bluebirds.
One week later, on April 20, 2015, I returned. And found this in the new box:
The bluebird took me up on the offer she couldn't refuse, and laid a full clutch in it to boot! Who wouldn't be delighted to move into a brand new, white cedar, rainproof, insulated, baffled home, when your singlewide was falling apart anyway, and the rain was coming in?
I was beyond delighted at this development. But even as I exulted, I noticed that a pair of tree swallows also wanted Mrs. Bluebird's new home. They were fluttering around even as I peeked in and saw her new clutch. D'oh!!
So home I went again and the next morning I put up Box #2 for the tree swallows. Again, hoping my plan would work, and thinking it would. April 21, 2015.
When I returned on April 23, the swallows were perched on the new box, and very defensive of it!
Inside:
April 29--still in residence, and defending the box.
On 05/06/15, there's a bigger, more formed grass ring in the tree swallow box, and evidence that the pair is sleeping the the box. That's good! Can't say I've ever found swallow poop in a box before, but you learn something every day.
Like, this is what happens to boxes you nail on trees. That is, after the coons have raided them.
Squirrels are delighted to chew them to pieces.
Plus, they rot a whole lot faster when there's wet tree bark behind them.
Please, if you've been nailing bird boxes to trees, stop now. Mount them like I do. You can go to this ancient post, where Liam's itty bitty and Chet's a pup, for more information. And if you need specs on materials, just give me a holla in the comments section and I can send them to you.
I decided that the Washington County Fish and Game Club (and specifically its nesting birds) needed me. So I ponied up my $30 and joined. We'll call the two new boxes and baffle setups my first donation.
You can't see her well, but the female bluebird's peeking out of her deluxe house in this picture!
Anyway, I was very pleased with how this all went down, a perfectly planned and executed
Perfect Bluebird Intervention.
Taking a bow. Right before I go back out and put up a few more boxes for the two pairs of bluebirds now nesting in rotten tree limbs within sight of the new box! Oh, and that second pair of tree swallows who showed up May 6...Yikes. Zickwork: Never done.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
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