Just when I think I have the little guys figured out, they throw me a curveball.
My backyard buddies were fairly predictable this spring. After poking around in various available houses, they chose the new house I had installed on a short pole with an aluminum baffle. They were a tad late getting on the nest – around April 10, but things went well. The three chicks fledged in a couple weeks and hung around begging for food a couple more weeks, then the hen went back on the nest, or so I thought.
One morning, after what I thought was a night visit from a raccoon – there were tell-tale signs – the hen didn’t appear going in and out of the nest. I assumed the worst, that they had lost that clutch. A few days later, the male showed up and would eat few meal worms, but I didn’t see the hen.
Then, last week, I saw the male go in the house with a mouthful of worms. That meant one thing. Chicks.
The strange thing, though, is that this pair of bluebirds doesn’t seem to recognize me. They keep their distance. I’m now wondering if a new pair of bluebirds displaced the old ones, kicked them out of the house. Sometimes, they do, and will build a nest on top of the old one.
But for now, the blues are taking meal worms by the score to an unknown number of hungry mouths.
With bluebirds, you just never know.