On bluebirds and other matters

Late Sunday afternoon, I poured a cocktail, grabbed my camera and the long lens, and took a camp chair down to the fence line to sit by one of the bluebird boxes where I’d seen some action going on.

I wasn’t out there very long, so I didn’t capture much. With bluebirds, I’ve found that you need patience and a chunk of time. I had the former but was running out of light for the latter.

Light for the latter. Ok. That sounds odd.






The female didn’t seem to have a problem with me sitting there. She continued to feed the babies inside the box after ascertaining that I wasn’t there to cause her grief. If it’s just a male you see bringing food to the box, it usually means that the babies aren’t born yet. The female will be inside, incubating the eggs.






She’s about to take off here, but I missed the wing shot by a nano-second. Drat!






Housekeeping here. As an aside, I have yet to see a male bluebird cleaning the nest although I have read that both parents share in this duty. This is a fecal sack that the female is removing from the nest.

A fecal sac is a clean, tough mucous/gelatinous membrane/film containing the excrement of nestling birds. Nestlings usually excrete one sac after each feeding, especially as they get older. The parent grasps the sac by the middle with their beak.

I do hope you are taking notes.

Next up on the menu is a live grasshopper.

He was twitching.

Sorry.

But everybody’s gotta eat.

George was hoping that I would throw his frisbee. But the birds won’t come when there’s too much movement in front of the nest.

He looks sad about it, doesn’t he?

Ok, maybe not. Here, he’s lookin’ kinda hopeful.

But it’s not happenin’, I tell him.

Resignation.

:   :   :

In other news, the crazy male cardinal continues to thwack the living room window at his reflection. I can hear him out there as I write this. School continues to be extraordinarily busy. My husband thanked me for the excellent meal tonight. I picked up a roaster chicken and a small tub of red-skinned potato salad from the local Acme, and microwaved some frozen asparagus spears. It was really good.

Too bad there’s no trifle left for dessert . . .

Until tomorrow then? You’ll come back, I hope.

Because it’s always a pleasure having you visit.