This was a strange year for bluebird watching. My resident pair picked out their house early and she was on the nest the first week of April. After the given two-week warming-the-eggs time and the two-week feeding-the-babies time, the young ones fledged. Young one, actually. Only one baby made it.
Then, in less than two weeks she was on the nest again, and we waited and waited and nothing. She abandoned the nest for a few days, and then came back. I saw her bringing in bits of pine straw and she was on the nest again. The babies hatched, begged for two weeks and they were off, first to the tall trees way behind our yard, then they disappeared. My suspicions were that the second nest failed for some reason and this week, my hunch was confirmed. I opened the box to clean out the birdhouse and there were three tiny, blue eggs, undisturbed. Instead of building a new nest, she just lay new eggs alongside the infertile ones and went from there. One year when I was cleaning out the house, I found multiple nests built one on top of the other and the middle nest held eggs. That year, a more dominant pair of bluebirds had apparently kicked the first-time owners out of the house, built their nest on top of the first nest and hatched their own eggs.
If you watch bluebirds long enough, you’ll see amazing things.
This year’s bluebird pair was as friendly as any I’ve ever been around. I feel confident this was their second year in my yard. The hen would often come to the mealworm feeder before I was finished dispersing the treats. I could easily get within three feet and she paid me no mind. Also, the adult bluebirds did not shoo their young one away when the second batch arrived. Often they do, making the juveniles fend for themselves, but this year, since they only had one, I believe they gave him extra privileges to make sure that they had at least one chick to survive. If wildlife can’t reproduce itself each year, it dies out. Nature is fascinating, especially bluebirds.