Holding Out Hope

Today is about day 18 and no babies still. I did see the male and female this morning on a distant fence. She is not sitting on them as much as she had been. I also saw the male this evening. I am hoping that I am just wrong on what day we are on and that they will still hatch! According to the bluebird forums, I have set up my nest boxes in the wrong place and could prove to be a disaster because of predators. I will be looking to redo them soon. I sure hope that these eggs do something. I am going to be soooo sad and disappointed if they don't hatch.

Hard Boiled and Missing Eggs?

Well today is about day 15 of incubation and no sign of babies. I am REALLY getting worried. I have been worried because of this extreme heat and the fact that the female has been sitting on the nest more then she did last time. The facts I have been told state that if it is hot they don't sit on them much. My mom thinks because of the heat they may be hard boiled by now. I thought she was just making a joke but now that I have been reading on http://sialis.org/index.html, I am thinking that may be true. The website says that extreme heat can be fatal to the eggs or babies. I wish I had read this before today as I could have put up a heat shield of some sort. This morning I saw the female fly out so I went to check the nest. All 4 eggs were there but one looked a little funny. It has gotten thin looking at one end and looked like a faint white ring at the top half of it. I thought it might be a sign of it about to hatch. I noticed the male and female hanging out on the fence all morning long. I tried to go out again but the male attacked me each time I tried. lol. So I stopped for a while then around 12:30 I tried again and still 4 eggs. No change. Then I noticed them still hanging out on the fences this afternoon. I checked the nest yet again. 3 EGGS????? An egg was missing!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sooooooo confused. I have never seen a snake in the yard. We don't have cats or squirrels. I watched a lot this morning and the only thing I saw was our resident Mockingbird and the male Bluebird was not happy about him being around so he was pecking at him. The mockingbirds have a nest in the neighbors tree in the front yard. I know they are aggressive and territorial but would they take an egg from the nest? I am currently trying to get some advice from a forum http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/bluebird/. I am really worried and disappointed but am holding out hope for the remaining 3 eggs.

Male and Female Sitting on Fence

12:30 4 eggs

4:30 3 EGGS!

Nest Boxes and Redbud Tree

Impatiently Waiting!

I think I am as bad as a kid on Christmas morning. I keep thinking it will be soon but it isn't happening fast enough for me. HA! I believe today is about Day 13. They usually hatch in between 12-14 days. So that SHOULD BE ANYTIME!!!! I am starting to get a little worried. I am sure all is okay, just really impatient waiting to see those cute little babies. I will check on them again in the morning and post what I find. "COME ON BABIES - Use those egg teeth to pip your way out. The world is waiting on your arrival (well at least I am)."

Getting Closer

It is now getting close to time for hatching to begin. We are at about day 11. Incubation as I told you in the last post lasts about 12-14 days. So I sat outside this morning to watch the activity level for signs that they had hatched. I watched the female go in and stay about a minute or two and then leave again. She did this several times so I thought we might have babies. I waited until she left and I ran out with my camera for a peek but no babies, just eggs. I did not see any signs of cracks on the eggs so I think today is not the day. From what I read last night, they usually hatch in the morning and it can take anywhere from 1 to 6 hrs for them to peck their way out. I did take a few pics of the female today and the other day got some pics of the male. I will post them below. I am hoping tomorrow or the next day we will have babies.

Male Eastern Bluebird

Female Eastern Bluebird on Fence with Nest Box

Female Eastern Bluebird

4 Eggs in Nest

Still Waiting

I haven't posted in a while because there have been no changes to the nest and I have been busy with workshops for school. I do check in on momma bird every morning and evening. She is staying on the nest a LOT more this time around. The last time around I could go out there most evenings and she would not be on the nest so I could take a peek at it. I am wondering if it has to do with the extreme heat that we are having. Maybe she is having to protect the eggs from it? I have started to go out there several times just to check the nest but she is always inside so I don't want to disturb her. I did get a picture of the eggs the other day but nothing had changed. We are on Day 9 from when I discovered the first 3 eggs. According to what I have read she may have waited until the 4th egg was laid to start incubating. So that may put us at Day 7 or 8 for Incubation time. Incubation typically lasts 12-14 days. So we are getting close to hatch day! I am hoping by the end of the week I will be posting with pics of the new babies. I am so excited.

More Eggs

I would like to start off today with a few facts about Eastern Bluebirds then go on to the events from today. I get most of my facts from http://sialis.org/index.html .

For those of you that might not know, the male is very dark blue on the back and head with orange-red and white on throat and breast. The female is lighter in color. She has light bluish gray on her back and head with white, light orange, and gray on the throat and breast. The Eastern Bluebird can be found in the central or eastern United States. They like open areas with scattered trees and fence rows, farmlands, orchards, and suburbs.

This morning I noticed the male and female birds out back on the fence. I decided to watch them for a little bit. Momma bird flew into the nest and stayed for quite some time then flew out. About 5 to 10 min later she flew back in the nest. Daddy bird brought her some food (looked like a worm). She stayed most of the morning in there. I wasn't sure if she was just sitting on them or if she was laying another one. From what I read in the past she doesn't lay on the eggs much unless it is cool. Also, she doesn't incubate the eggs until she is finished laying them all so that they can all hatch at about the same time. So I waited until mid-afternoon to go check the nest. Sure enough there are now 4 eggs. I wonder if she will lay a 5th one?

WE HAVE EGGS!!!!!

Let me start out with some background information. We moved into this house in south Arlington, Texas about 6 years ago. It was a scarcely populated area with very little trees because of all the new developments around. We never really saw any birds except for crows/blackbirds. In the years since we have lived here we have begun to see some new birds such as doves, mockingbirds, and wrens or sparrows (not sure which). We tried putting out bird food but it didn't really bring anything new.
You also need to know that my grandmother, Stella Frances Green, was an avid bird watcher. She knew most of the types of birds in her area of southwest Oklahoma and if she didn't, she had a book to look it up in. In her yard you could find: Goldfinches, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Chickadees (my favorite), Hummingbirds, Titmouse, Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Baltimore Orioles and many many more. She went to be with Jesus this last Feb. 14th. About two months after her death, Spring hit and so did the birds. We started seeing all these different birds that we had never seen before. I was glad that I had one of my grandmother's books to look them all up. We had cow birds (black with a brown head) and House Finches (brown with a red head). Then when my mom came to visit guess what showed up? EASTERN BLUEBIRDS. It was amazing. My grandmother once had some in a nest box that had a glass back and attached to her window. The babies hatched and a snake ate them. It was sad but part of the food chain, I guess.
So a month or so went by and we hadn't seen them much. My husband found an Eastern Bluebird nest box at Walmart and put it up in the backyard near our Oklahoma Redbud tree that we got from our friends, Donna and Clinton Cole, just after we moved. Then about a week after we put it up Guess who showed back up? Our sweet little Eastern Bluebirds. They were making a nest in the box. The next time I checked the nest there were 3 eggs. Then a few days later, there were 5 eggs. We were sooooo excited!!!!!! I took pictures every few days. I will be posting the pics here for you to see. Just so you know... They all hatched, one got eaten by my dog (who also killed all but one baby rabbit that momma rabbit decided to have in our backyard), the rest fledged. We also put up another nest box nearby. This has been about a month ago. We have not seen the bluebirds since. Today for the first time, I saw them and guess what???? They have made a nest in the new nest box and there are 3 EGGS!!!!!!! So hear we go again.. This time my husband suggested that I start a blog so here it is..