Bluebirds blog and other nesting activity in Nebraska

Good luck with your blue bird boxes,
Look forward to seeing the pictures and updates.

The boxes and nests need some care. I took out one dead chick last year, with 3 siblings alive in the box. The big work is straightening the poles that the boxes are attached to. Also the boxes made by a volunteer are a worse design, they slip down the pole.
pioneersparkbluebirds.blogspot.com/2018/09/repairs-and-fall-check-started.html

The poles are of two types. One set is a pole I have to dig a hole for. An easier one to install has a metal rod hammered into rather soft prairie soil, with the pole slipped over it. I do have some trouble pulling out the metal rod at times.

The nesting has started. I will check tomorrow, but expecting hatching by next week.
pioneersparkbluebirds.blogspot.com/

Great news,
Good luck with the blog.

Thanks!

pioneersparkbluebirds.blogspot.com/2019/05/box-four-family-coming-along-nicely.html

swallows are very late this year, just eggs so far

Considering a cool May one bird lost is actually not many
pioneersparkbluebirds.blogspot.com/2019/06/optimistically-10-young-bluebirds-will.html

Glad 10 have fledged.

The eggs are a stunning colour aren't they 🙂

I am still doing the boxes this year. My daughter gave me 4 boxes to put up (to replace the worst 4) as a Christmas present. The park has some boxes that I can use, made by a volunteer, but are way too big. House wrens will take over those as well, but it is a lot of empty space the male has to take up with ticks before the female makes a tiny nest.

I put some cardboard on one occupied nest to keep the wrens out. They break the eggs.
pioneersparkbluebirds.blogspot.com/2019/07/on-your-own-for-next-10-days-and-some.html

I was asked to do a talk on "birds" for the senior classes I myself take during the fall and winter. I will be using my bluebirds as example of the nesting season. Then I have some films, one on the migration over the Gulf of Mexico and one on Alaska, about 10 minutes. These are people not likely to come birding with us, but still interested in birding in the back yard. The talk and films are 90 minutes. We have some 80 people coming. It is in a church and I can't run the laptop upront so my wife is going to be in the back corner changing the slides and media. The second talk is on insects, a week later, by some academic from the U.

Bluebird boxes will be cleaned out this month and the remaining 3 boxes swapped. The poles are out there for these, I do have 3 spare poles too.

Hope everything goes okay for the second broods