The beginning of May,

my favorite month of the year, is also the point in time when the serviceberry blooms. And everybody comes to pose in front of it. (male Rosebreasted Grosbeak, Blue Jay, Grackle (‘tis the Count himself!), MoDo, female Redwinged Blackbird, female Rosebreasted Grosbeak)

This is from last night. The babies have started to exercise their wings, and this is where the new larger box will hopefully prove it’s worth. In order to take their first flight and not drop to the ground, young birds need to have strong wings to carry them. In a larger box, there is more space for them to practise and develop their muscles, making them stronger for fledge day.

(I have two more videos from recent days, you can see them on my website ostdrossel.com. I don’t want to clog the feed with BB video upon BB video post here.)

I may be biased but Bluebird babies have the best faces.

Sorry, another nestbox video. They are just so much fun right now. They are 12 days old, and this is currently happening every 3 minutes On an interesting sidenote - Mom waits for the one to be done stretching because that is how they usually go when they poo. They are so dramatic, and I love their grumpy little faces.

The Bluebird babies are 10 days old now. They have become vocal, their eyes are open, feathers are starting to emerge. We have gone from “shrimp” stage to “grumpy old gramps” stage. Gayle and Mr. Business continue to be very attentive. Gayle is still spending the night in the box but now that the babies are getting bigger, it is not as comfy for her anymore.

The Bluebird babies are getting bigger and stronger by the minute, thanks to the dedicated feeding of the parents. I’ve seen spiders, ants, wasps, bugs, worms, caterpillars and moths being brought in. This is from yesterday, today I see some eyes open too :)

Lunch time! Also for Mom. Yes, you saw that right

The most exciting thing

this week for me was watching the Bluebird family raise their babies. Wednesday night, temperatures dropped to below zero, and when I saw the parents bringing dried mealers in the box, I rehydrated some of them in boiling water and after cooling, mixed them with the dried ones to help them a bit on that frosty morning. There is a constant coming and going, and Gayle and Mr. Business are bringing all kinds of insects to feed the babies, and apparently, we have some icky stuff crawling around here

Here is Mr. Business in all his glory. There will be more nest videos soon too, I just need some time! Have a great Friday - it looks like frost is over!

Spring is in the air,

and there is no denying it, despite the frost, and the birds are starting to show up as couples. I saw Blue Jays gathering stuff, the Robins are becoming more defensive, the MoDos are snogging things up and the House Finches are getting romantic. So much to see, such nasty weather!

Nestbox news: The clutch is complete

Yesterday at her usual time, Gayle laid egg number five. she spent the night in the box, and today it was clear that she is done with laying and incubating now. During incubation, she will spend a lot of time in the box, warming the eggs evenly with her brood patch, and also turning them so they all develop evenly. Mr. Business will come occasionally to bring her a snack, and sometimes she leaves to get a bath, drink some water or eat. This will continue for the next two weeks. I started a little timelapse when she went into overdrive building, and ended it today.

Nestbox news: The clutch is complete

Yesterday at her usual time, Gayle laid egg number five. she spent the night in the box, and today it was clear that she is done with laying and incubating now. During incubation, she will spend a lot of time in the box, warming the eggs evenly with her brood patch, and also turning them so they all develop evenly. Mr. Business will come occasionally to bring her a snack, and sometimes she leaves to get a bath, drink some water or eat. This will continue for the next two weeks. I started a little timelapse when she went into overdrive building, and ended it today.

Nestbox news: And then there were three

Today at around 11, her usual time, Gayle laid her third egg of the clutch. The weather is mild and sunny, and right now, things could not be better. She comes in to sit on them every now and then but does not appear to be incubating yet. The next two days will show how big the first clutch of 2022 is going to be. Now when she starts incubating, her metabolism changes and she is producing more body heat. On her belly, there is a so-called brood patch without feathers and blood vessels closer to the skin that she uses to keep the eggs warm.

the Bluebird babies have hatched! The first two did so yesterday, and the remaining three took a bit longer and hatched this morning. It was a bit nervous yesterday because I saw Gayle looking out the entrance hole a lot and also leaving a lot, and Mr. Business was nowhere to be seen. These birds are hardy but anything can pretty much happen to them any time. Thankfully, this morning, he finally seems to have realized that he has babies now, and him and Gayle have been feeding them diligently all day. The next couple of days will be on the cooler side, and this is when the babies are most vulnerable.

You can hear Mr. Business sing a little melody when he arrives with food. that is later going to be the parents’ call to lure the babies out of the box for fledging. I really like how much space they have in there, how they don’t have to hover over the babies but can watch them from the edge of the nest. Nobody is crammed unless they want to.

All five eggs have hatched (last two over night, and the female ate the shells), and all is well here. I haven’t seen the male a lot yesterday and the female looked out and went for food a lot so I was getting concerned that something had happened. But this morning he finally seems to have realized that there are babies, and both have been feeding them like champs ever since. They still need to coordinate better though… I love how the big box seems to make it easier for them to take care of the babies, things are not so crammed.

The Bluebirds are hatching! I am so happy. I also saw my first Grosbeak of the season earlier.