Thursday, May 26, 2011

Bluebirds Fledged

We have a Bluebird nest box located about 10 feet in front of our front window of the motor home.

We were hoping since we’re living in the motorhome now, we would have a chance to watch the babies fledge.  We’ve been keeping a close eye on them.

Since we’ve been living here in Georgia, we’ve had the chance to really learn a lot about the various birds.  We’ve learned that the different types have such different personalities and habits.

They don’t just drop all the eggs at once.  It’s normally one egg per day.  Mama doesn’t start sitting on them until they have all been laid.   They seem to hatch on different days as well.

We aren’t sure, but we think they started fledging last week.  On Tuesday, there was unusual activity around the nest box, so we decided to keep a close eye out to see if we could witness an actual fledge.

We have the sunscreen on the front window, so I only had a small area with a clear view out the drivers front window.  I stood patiently zoomed and focused on the nest box opening.

While I was waiting, I saw Daddy Bluebird feeding the baby and I’m sure offering some encouragement to take the big step!

Male Bluebird feeding Young

Male Bluebird feeding Young

I finally saw a little head peeking out.  The picture didn’t turn out great unfortunately.

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He was getting ready, so I stood there as still as I could, determined to catch his first flight.  After a few minutes, he finally got brave enough and this is what I photographed.

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Don’t see him, do you?  Well actually he is a little to the right.  I snapped the shutter as quickly as I could, but he was quicker.  Once he finally made up his mind, he went fast.  I guess there is no slow “first steps”  for birds.  You either gotta go or not!

Al found him sitting up on an electrical wire right about the motor home.  Notice that he doesn’t have a tail yet?  We’ve noticed the babies fledge with very minimal tail feathers. 

Newly fledged baby Bluebird

If you look carefully, you can see a little bit of blue on him, and you can see the start of his tail feathers.

Newly fledged baby Bluebird

Yesterday the final two babies fledged.  There were 5 eggs originally, so we assume all hatched.  We see the family hanging around pretty close to the nest box.  They will stay together and soon we’ll see 7 Bluebirds sitting on the power lines all in a row. 

They left the nest box a mess.  They normally do a pretty good job of keeping it clean, but I think with the 5 babies there was no room for mama or dad to get in to do any cleaning.  Al is going to get some rubber gloves and a gas mask and remove all the old nesting material.  They’ll be starting another nest very soon.   I guess we won’t be here to see it though.

Today, the foundation guys are finishing up.  We’ve had to  keep Sweet Pea up here with us to keep her from “helping.”  Al and I are getting more and more attached to that big red dog and I think there will be some tears when we leave…not because of the house, but because of that darn red dog.

Sweet Pea and Al

9 comments:

  1. what a great spot to sit and watch the new babies take flight!..love the shot of Sweet Pea!

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  2. Wow! Your pictures of the blue birds are fantastic. You may not have got a picture of the baby birds first flight, but you did get to witness it. Amazing!

    The picture of Al and Sweet Pea is priceless!

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  3. Great pics of the baby bluebird. Nice shot of Al and Sweet Pea too, he will miss you guys when you have to leave.

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  4. You have a lot of patience to wait for the baby to fly while holding the camera. I've done that while waiting for something, and given up. What luck it fledged while you were watching! Such sweet photos of him sitting on the wire.

    Your neighbors better lock up Sweet Pea when you leave, or you'll find him in the rig down the road. :)

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  5. Cool pics of the bluebirds. I see another birder in the making! :)

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  6. I hope the new owners are OK with her visiting. Before we had the "dog Watch" electronic fence installed around our entire 3+ acres, our dogs would visit some of the neighbors on a regular basis. One neighbor always gave them dog bones and enjoyed their occasional company.

    Then she sold her house. The new owners did not like dogs and one day showed up at our door with a baseball bat and said if the dogs came on his property again he would "deal" with them. We had had no previous complaints.

    That was why we put in the underground fence system.

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  7. Those baby birds are so cute.

    Just load Sweet Pea in the MH and drive off.

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  8. Yes, it's not over until the fat lady sings at the closing!
    I wish you the very best.

    Oh, the baby bluebird was a wonderful sight to see. Thanks for sharing.
    I hope you see many more lovely sights of nature during your travels.
    Happy Trails, Penny, TX

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