4 fledged safely, 10 more eggs to hatch

These four young left the nest the past 5 days or so and there are now 10 more bluebird eggs to hatch

Two eggs in Box 16 remain on the North, saw one parent. Brave effort next to wrens.

On the South side there are 5 eggs and 3 eggs in two boxes. These two raised four young and now have 5 more eggs:

Swallows remain around boxes, a few young ones still peeking out of the hole. In a week all will have fledged. Box one South side fledged 5-6 swallows, one did not make it.

WRENS

On both sides at least one pair of wrens is active. Box 14 on the South side is hard to access at this time, but it was claimed by wrens a week ago. Box 13 had grown swallows 5 days ago. The wrens will not harm them, they are smaller themselves. But as soon as the swallows left, 3-4 days ago, a male wren filled the entire box with sticks. They already have the neighboring nest box!

Evicting is not something I like to do so I never take out built nests. But if you get to the box before the wrens lay eggs, I think it's fair enough to take sticks out. The role of a male house wren is to fill every hole in his neighborhood with sticks, whether they use the box or not later on.

Another option is to pull up the box with wren sticks and move it to a different location, further away from the trees.

Bring us Food! More Food!

The nestlings left, both swallows and bluebirds, remind me that the whole thing is about food. Here is a picture from past summers with the day old nestling (with no eyes open) begging:

Today mostly swallows were seen. These two came to the box slot at the top. I like those boxes as I can even get an iPhone in the slot to see inside:

A couple of videos show fledglings begging. The job is to get the nestlings out so the parents feed the ones still inside. There are two inside and two outside.

OK, now, to summarize the activity still going on. It was more than I expected and all kinds of things to report so I will separate birds by species:

SWALLOWS

About half the swallows had fledged, half the boxes had some activity. If I see a bird inside and go to the box, it flied out if it is the parent. This one at the hole stayed in so they were actually two grown young. Eventually a parent showed up, on the outside. The one on top is a fledged bird, did not get fed in the 20 minutes I watched.

There were a number of boxes checked by this method but I did open one or two.

BLUEBIRDS

These birds always leave me more mysteries. The box that had four young leave a week ago has now five new eggs. I saw both parents and even cowbirds outside, but the cowbirds cannot get in to lay eggs. Cowbirds are in the first photo:

The parents:

On the North side the renesting (probably, there was a failed attempt in May 100-200 feet away)  had three eggs last week in Box 16. Now there were two, the one has some grass on it but is whole.

Both parents were around and one flew out of the box. I checked the box next door that had swallows earlier. Now it is filled with house wren sticks... and soon a nest on top.  I suspect the house wren broke one egg of the bluebird clutch.

On a happier note the four in Box 3 are ready to go any day now:

HOUSE SPARROWS

Any unclaimed boxes near a building will be claimed by house sparrows. I found two, and in the other I poked around to see two speckled eggs at least. They use the feathers the swallows leave so it is hard to count eggs.

I never evict any birds.

Bluebird Nesting mostly over, mostly successful

South Side Bluebirds and a few swallows

We checked all the boxes with known activity today. The nests that had bluebirds had all fledged, so Box 11 and Box 4 (2 birds last time) were empty. At the far end I have been reluctant to move Box 14, as it has been a popular territory for bluebirds, though now with tall vegetation is inconvenient to check (chiggers!). I finally ventured to out there and found sticks inside. If you have followed this blog at all last year, you know what that means: house wrens. Sticks were up to the top.

The wren nests are very difficult to check, as the pile of sticks supports the nest in a far corner and the whole assembly collapses easily. I moved things carefully. As soon as I saw a little pink in there, the nest was clearly there. Better to leave nature take care of things. I will not check the box till September.

Elsewhere swallows allowed me access. Box 1 had almost grown swallows. I closed it after a very brief look.

Another swallow nest near the middle of the trail had fledged all the nestlings I only once had a peek at. Except for one. It was dead, mummified, I will spare you the picture. Contents were removed here:

The weedy flowers ("forbs") are quite tall where there is no grass after the last burn.

North Side: Swallows and Bluebirds active

The Box 3 naked babies of 9 days ago

Are now almost fully feathered (you can still see pinfeathers) :

On the golf course tree line the one egg Bluebird nest is now 3 eggs (Box 16). What slowpokes, 2 more eggs in 9 days? 

Box 18 swallows allowed a look at the nest. Note the feather lining:

There are 5 or more nestlings there.

Everything coming along normally, one late start nest

Bluebirds

On the south side, the four nestlings in box 9 fledged:

Those were the chicks 4 days ago and and now the box is empty. Box 11 is about at the stage where those were earlier:

My planned checks are such that I probably will see an empty box next time. Box 4 has two chicks and they too are well feathered and less than a week to go.

The 4 eggs on the North side hatched. I have a video and below that the sleeping four, 1-2 days old.

One pair is nesting in the golf course tree line boxes, prairie side. There was just one egg so far. All the rest on the North side are swallows.

The parent was inside just before I got there.

SWALLOWS

The box I have been following most closely is coming along with pinfeathered young, eyes open:

You can see more than 5 squeezed in there in Box 1 of South side.  There are many more with young at this point and a few with fully feathered young. They are very close together in age, not more than a week apart for 10 or more nests.

I was able to see more of them today than other days, without being attacked. Most I did not take pictures of, as the feather lining was in the way.

Lots of nestlings plus one nest with 4 eggs

The timetable of Bluebirds and probably swallows needs some 12-14 days of incubation. Incubation may not have started immediately when 4 eggs were in the box. In an older blog entry I outlined the timetable:
TIMETABLE for BLUEBIRDS (<<--link)

Quick summary: 17-18 days from hatching to leaving nest box.

SWALLOWS

The swallows are still busy around their boxes, and I did not disturb them at all. You can conclude a lot about nest boxes with binoculars. One nest on the South side had been claimed by tree swallows on May 6th or before, and only now do they have nestlings (some 5-7) that hatched. I went up to the box and half way expected it to be empty, since no swallows attacked me.

The I phone did not focus enough but I can count at least 7. Other swallows were less advanced. This box started later so I am thinking it is still just eggs. Female inside and male on bush nearby:

There will be some 60 swallows fledged in about 2 weeks.


BLUEBIRDS

On the South side, we have Box 11 coming along:

These have pin feathers so they have a week or more to go.

Box 9 is most advanced, and if I check them Jun 8, I may see them gone:

Box 4 has just two nestlings, coming along fine.

The chicks were all sleeping. Here are some begging chicks from last year:

I would get more of that at about 10AM, less again after noon. Lastly, the 4 eggs from the North side this year. The female was in the box incubating seconds before I checked it. With these 4 counted in, we would get 14 bluebirds. Most years we get 20, so I expect there are some late nesters around.

This male on the North side has been around boxes 16 and 17, and both are available, with grass nests inside. No eggs today.