Sunday, May 22, 2016

Bluebird Chronicle 2016


April 24: Evidence says kids plural (frequency of trash removal).
We dared guess as high as three.

 April 30. Four little heads!
May 8: Hard to see the fourth, look for the eye above the center. 
My guess is this is shortly before they fledged. The next time I checked they were gone, but I was encouraged to see no sign of foul play.

Fast-forward a week and I started to see Ma collecting as many worms as possible then, beak full, heading north over the field. Working theory: she's got 'em parked somewhere safe and is delivering bulk food. I guess the growing kids wouldn't all fit back in that little 4" tube. Like trying to put toothpaste back?

A few days ago I had my first sighting of the youngsters, presumably brought back to the old 'hood for the free food, but they stayed high in the trees.

May 15: Single egg. It was blue, hard to see in this bright light. I checked a few days later and it was gone. Maybe the House Wren stole it, I don't know but Ma and Pa seemed to be to busy to spend much time guarding it.

 May 22: we are finally treated to some parental attentiveness.

It appears to be time to start over. Yay! 

Another shot of junior. Perhaps soon we'll see more of the siblings.
 
 I'm sure they prefer the live mealworms but will take the dry ones too. In another attempt to stretch my feed dollar I've started to raise mealworms.

Evening update (May 22): one kid seen in the worm tray. 
Shortly after that, these two on nearby tree. 

May 26: Certainly by now we are seeing 3 kids. 

  Here's Ma feeding one of them.

 
May 28: First time for sure I saw all four kids (since in nest).
One flew before I could prove it.  

His lordship, portrait du jour.

 (Continued, chapter 2 of Bluebird Chronicle is here.)

No comments:

Post a Comment