I mentioned a few days ago that we have our first Eastern Bluebird nest.  Well the parents are still working on the nest, specifically the female.  She’ll carry this little pieces of grass or pine needles in her beak and take them into the nest.

This video (complete with my shaky hands since this camcorder is so old and doesn’t have Image Stabilization) shows the female Bluebird with her nesting material.  She flies back and forth (I show the male nearby briefly as well) before finally bringing the material into her nest.

Hopefully in another 5-7 days or so, we will have our first Bluebird eggs

Shortly after I started recording, a Mourning Dove leisurely strolled back and forth in front of the birdcam and bird stream.

In this post I have some pictures of the Bluebird House with built in BirdCam.

Here’s the front view of the bird house.  You can see it has two doors on each side.

Bluebird House With Hidden Bird Cam Front View

In this side view you can see how the Bird Cam is mounted in the left hand corner.

Bluebird House With Hidden Bird Cam Side View Showing Camera

This is a picture of the other side.  It has a clear plastic window, so if I am lucky enough to have a BlueBird nest in this house, I can open up one side and get a pretty interesting view.

Bluebird House With Hidden Bird Cam Side View Plastic Window

I laid out all the garden soil and the mulch.  Now I just have to add a few plants around the edges.

I also bought some additional camera accessories, one of which I hope will be pretty cool and pay big dividends in video

Notice the 2 large tree stumps on the right hand side of the picture?  The one closest to the camera actually has a small bird cam that I attached to it.

Disappearing Bird Stream With Hidden Bird Cam

Here’s a picture of the tree stump and the bird cam.  I have it angled so that any birds who walk up to the stream I will be able to capture that in video.

I do have some technical challenges with this, such as how can I capture multiple video streams, but I’ll post about that later.

Hidden Bird Cam On Large Branch

I’m happy to report that Melvin’s mother has returned tonight.  It was a scary night when she did not return last night and Melvin had to spend his first night alone.

Now as to why she may not have returned, I have a theory and I think it may have been my fault.

Because it’s been so hot, I not only asked Leecy to turn on the mister and point it towards the nest, but also asked her to place this sun shade fabric over the top of the shrub where the nest is.  I thought it would help keep Melvin just a bit cooler, and since both parents had returned after she placed the sun shade over the shrub, I didn’t think the parents were too freaked out.

I think I was mistaken and the sun shade did bother the mother enough where she didn’t return for the night.  Whatever the cause, I did remove the sun shade and the mother spent a lot of time at the nest today cleaning up the nest and just watching Melvin.

As you’ll see in the video below, Melvin is continuing to grow, and growing new feathers every day.

What should I do?  It’s only supposed to get down to 79 degrees tonight, so I’m guessing it will be warm enough for him (especially since it was 105 degrees earlier today) throughout the evening.  What about tomorrow?  Again, I’m just assuming, but I would like to think that the male Cardinal can still feed him, although both parents have been previously sharing that duty.

How long can these baby birds survive without one of parents feeding them?  When do I make the determination about whether or not to take him to a wildlife rehabber?  It’s supposed to be 100 degrees again tomorrow so I know he will be hot. We wouldn’t be able to get him to a rehabber until late tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

By the way, Melvin is only 7 days old so he is likely too young to be a fledgling.

Here’s a video of Melvin tonight, alone in his nest.

As I’ve mentioned in the my last few posts about Melvin, his father is taking a very active role in his feeding.

Here’s Papa Cardinal bringing in some food for Melvin.  It looks like he has some kind of worm in his beak.

Papa Cardinal Sitting On Pool Rock Looking At Nest

Once I moved away from the nest, Papa brought the worm to Melvin.

If you look closely you can see Melvin’s eyes just beginning to open.

Later Papa kept watch on the nest while I was watering the garden.

Papa Cardinal Chirping On Perch WIth Shadow In Background

The video is about 10 minutes long and I find it quite interesting to watch.  Both parents bring this huge piece of whatever it is to “Melvin.”  Mama’s piece of food was reasonable, and Melvin gobbled it right up.  Papa’s piece of food was huge, and “Melvin” struggled to swallow it.  I think Papa got a little frustrated with “Melvin’s” inability to swallow the food, so he gave it to Mama and it took her a few tries to finally get “Melvin” to eat the whole thing.  You’ll notice that the second egg still hasn’t hatched.  Leecy checked it today, and the egg doesn’t have any cracks, so perhaps it will still hatch soon.  The eggs were originally laid within one day of one another, but this second one is taking a while to hatch.

Before all of this happened, I noticed Papa watching me check out “Melvin’s” nest.  At first I don’t think he was too thrilled I was so close to the nest, but after a while he calmed down.

Papa Cardinal Worried I'm Bothering His Baby

If anyone has any guesses as to what that giant piece of food is they are trying to feed “Melvin” I’d love to hear what you think!

The overriding theme for the Purple Martins early in the morning is to stretch their wings, yawn, do a little singing, preen, and listen to the babies still in the nest squawk about how hungry they are.

Just like I would do, the first thing you do to start the day is yawn.

Purple Martin Yawning In The Morning

After the morning yawn and a few wing stretches it’s time for the family to begin preening their wings.

Then you start bonding with the family by doing a little singing, and ignoring their sibling who hasn’t fledged the nest.

Colony Of Purple Martins Enjoying Morning Sun

When the baby realizes that the sad stare “because I’m hungry” doesn’t work, it starts to squawk for food.  Unfortunately for the baby, this is their brother who just left the nest a couple of days ago and is still learning how to hunt for its own food, much less food for its sibling.

Baby Purple Martin Begging Sibling For Food

Just like a human family, the mother had enough of the squawking and flew out to get some food.

Purple Martin Mother Feeding Her Young

Once that baby quieted down, another mother went out and actually found a Dragonfly for her babies.

Female Purple Martin Finally Caught A Dragonfly For Babies

While some of the parents went out to search for food for their babies, others decided to spend some additional time bonding.

Brother And Sister Purple Martins Sitting Together

And that’s the way the world turns early in the morning for this Purple Martin colony.  I’m not sure what they’ll be doing the rest of the day, but I will do a nest check tonight to see how everyone is doing after the high temperatures we’re expecting today.

Even the birds are getting really hot today and are starting to pant even though it’s still early in the morning.

Here’s one of the new fledglings from nest one, and he was already starting to pant at 9 am this morning.

Fledgling Male Purple Martin Panting In The Heat

When I turned on the BirdCam to check on momma Cardinal and her nest of 2 eggs, even she was already panting.

I got lucky this year (or the Cardinal felt sorry for me) in that the nest is in our Gardenia shrub, which means I don’t have to climb a ladder to look at the nest, and I was able to position my small BirdCam without too much trouble.

I recorded a 10 minute or so video with the BirdCam.  If the first part of the video you can see the two eggs, then later you can hear mama Cardinal start chirping before she appears in the nest.  At around the 8 minute mark, mama repositions her eggs.

The good part about the placement of this BirdCam is it should provide some really good video once the babies are born.  The not so great part is that the camera is positioned fairly close to the nest to you can’t always see the mother in full view.