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The Rest of the Story
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Posted by blumz (My Page) on Sat, Aug 20, 11 at 13:20
| Many of you may remember a couple months ago I posted that, after the first family of blues fledged, I cleaned out the old nest and the box. A couple of weeks later I saw the male and female entering the box pretty regularly and the female staying for extending periods. I could see a strand of pine needle poking out of the bottom of the door, so I assumed they were building a new nest. So I opened the box to check only to discover NO NEST but two fresh eggs lying on the bare floor of the box. There were a couple of pieces of pine straw in the box like they had started building, but the eggs were coming faster than they could build. I waited to see if they would complete the nest, but they did not. Some of you suggested that I carefully lift the eggs, form a nest for them using the pine needles they always use, and replace the eggs. It seemed like a great idea to me, so I carefully lifted the eggs without touching them, and built the nest as good as I could, as much like the ones they build as possible. The next day they were there checking it out. The were a little bit frenzied and chattering away, obviously confused, even though the eggs were plainly right in sight in the center of the nest. After a day or two of checking it out, they never returned to the box. They would come for meal worms, but never checked the box again. I eventually cleaned out the box and threw the eggs away. I knew they had been there long enough that they were no longer viable. It was so sad. I will always wonder what they would have done if I had not built a nest for them, but we do the best we can with the info we have at the time. It seemed like a great idea to me. I guess I just don't think like a blue bird. Hopefully, I'll have a new family next year. |
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RE: The Rest of the Story
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| I doubt that you adding the nesting material would chase them away. Do you know for a fact that the Blues you saw were the same pair that laid the eggs? Could have been a different pair house hunting and they would not want a box with eggs in it already. Something may have happened to the original female that laid the eggs or they could have been laid by a female that had something get into her nestbox during egg laying and she used yours to egg dump. You will never know for sure but Blues are very tolerant of our monitoring and fixing things. My female was injured this year right after her first nesting fledged. She went on to build a very crude second nest and laid four eggs. Once they hatched I realized I couldn't do any checks for blowflies since the nest was so thin so I did a nestchange and discovered the babies were on the bottom of the box. Well they got a nice cushy nest for the rest of their nestling period. Good luck next year!! Donna |
RE: The Rest of the Story
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| Donna, I am sure it was the same couple. We had watched them since the spring. We always have blues and they use the box for at least two, usually three, broods. The couple that raised the first brood seemed inexperienced to us, and that's why I think they were perplexed when a nest showed up that they didn't build. I hope they went on to raise the rest of her brood somewhere else. Great story about your nest change. Glad it worked out for you. We just love the blues. We have a lot of different birds, but watching the blues just makes our day. |
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