Bluebirds Abound!

Work, household projects and the weather all place constraints on my ability to travel around our property to observe the the rejuvenation of life which is occurring, now that Spring has finally stepped up to the plate and shown herself. Over the weekend we experienced a couple of stellar days and I took advantage of the warmth to spend time traveling about.

It’s not that I forgot, more so just failed to remember how much I love spending time in the natural world, where nothing remains the same but where there exists a reliable source of comfort and tranquility for me.

Starting with just a single bird house back in 2017, we offer over 30 sites across our fifty rural acres for the cavity nesting species like Bluebirds, Tree Swallows and House Wrens. The Bluebirds are the first to arrive. Next, the Tree Swallow show up, sometimes earlier than I think it is possible for them to survive; in cold weather when I can’t imagine there being sufficient insects around to nourish them. The last to arrive are the House Wrens.

Male Bluebirds can be seen perching atop a housing option as they try to woo their mate to consider it as a suitable place to raise their precious brood.

It’s not by design, but rather just the weather and my other commitments, but curiously the 2023 data I collected regarding nest box usage occurred on April 14th both in 2023 and this year, 2024. Here’s a snapshot of my spreadsheet which compares last year to this.

Robert and I drove around to nearly every bird house and observed a whopping seven (7) locations with eggs! We saw two boxes from which a Bluebird flew out and contained a well made nest. That’s a good sign that eggs will soon follow. There were two other houses with nests, which may belong to an active couple of Bluebirds, or perhaps Tree Swallows. They may also be abandoned nests (time will tell.)

There’s one location where for a couple of weeks, a Tree Swallow has been perching atop the box and a nearby perching pole. I chose not to disturb them to open their house, but I’m fairly certain that if we had, it we’d find no less than a nest, and probably eggs. I also observed a Tree Swallow pair checking out a house which had no signs of a nest, yet. Fingers crossed they decide to settle down there.

This is all exciting information, from my perspective, and it shows that if we can provide the sort of environment that supports these lovely birds, they will return to raise their 2024 clutches here.