Let me create the scene of what I witnessed.

As per my daily ritual I place some mealworms out in the mealworm feeder, provide some fresh water, and check on the Eastern Bluebird nest to see if any of the eggs have hatched.  When I first checked the nest, there was indeed a newborn Bluebird, probably less than an hour old. For now I’ll call it “Alfalfa after the Little Rascals character. You’ll see in the videos that this little bird was born with these little tufts of down on the top of it’s head that really looks quite comical.

I went back inside to put the dogs up, and to bring out my infrared temperature gauge to see how hot it was inside the nest. When I re-opened the nest box I noticed a one of the other eggs had started to crack and there was a little bird trying to work its way out of the shell.  Back inside I dash to grab my camera and change from my normal 300mm lens to a smaller lens since I wanted to capture this on video.

While recording this video, or I should say videos, I didn’t realize how long it takes from a baby bird to crack out of it’s shell.  In short, it would wiggle around, crack open the shell, rest, wiggle around some more, crack out of the shell some more, rest, and repeat over and over. I was filming this for a good 20 minutes before I decided I had footage to convey the scene (plus I was dripping in sweat). Fortunately for you, the reader, I only took certain parts from the video so there’s not more than 4 minutes of video to watch in all three scenes.

Oh, before I forget, I also took a picture of the umbrella I tied to the top of the nest to try and block some of the afternoon sun. Just like last year, the parents didn’t seem to mind the new addition and she went in her nest to care for her young.

One word of warning. The Purple Martins are making all kinds of noise in the background.

Bluebird Nesting Site With Umbrella Attached To Block The Sun

And now the videos.  First scene one.

Scene two

And finally scene three

Let me know what you think!

As usual, the male and female Bluebirds swoop down once I put out some fresh mealworms.  They each get their fill, then take a little break.  Later, they both come back and that’s where the romance begins.

Both Bluebirds grab a mealworm, and fly over to their nest. Normally the female starts flapping her wings, and the male starts doing the same. However, normally the female does not have a mealworm, and waits for the male to give her one.

Male And Female Bluebirds With Mealworms In Mouth

The male, trying to impress the female, fluffs out his chest and presents her two mealworms that he has in his mouth.

Male Bluebird Fluffing His Chest To Impress Female

The female, while possibly impressed, seems to be saying “thanks, but I already have a mealworm.”

Male Bluebird Trying To Force Female To Take His Mealworm

The male, well, being male, gets a little pushy, and seems to be saying “yes, you have 1 mealworm, but I have 2!”

Male And Female Bluebirds Touching Beaks With Mealworms In Mouth

The female, finally impressed, drops her own mealworm, and takes the 2 mealworms from the male (which I didn’t get a picture of).

The end, and they lived happily ever after

What I like about this picture is that you can see the bird’s feet at the bottom of the waterbowl.

Tufted Titmouse Bathing In Water Bowl

Now I just need to decide what to do.  Option one would be to call (and pay) for someone to come out and remove the honeybees. Option two is to wait a couple of days and see if the Queen moves to another location.  Option three is to spray them with a little water and hope that disperses them enough so that they find a new home (and not swarm on me or any of the fledgling Purple Martins.

Beehive In Maple Tree

In the picture below you can see one of the mamma Martins bringing in a honeybee for one of the babies.

Female Purple Martin Holding Honeybee In Mouth

And just to show the difference in growth between runt and it’s siblings, here they all are in the nest box. Runt is in the bottom left hand corner, obviously smaller than the others.  He is chirping for food on his own now, so while I check him every day, I may not feed him if he appears to be doing okay.

Runt In Nest Box With Siblings

So overall, we now play a waiting game.  I’ll still feed them afternoon mealworms, and they will do whatever they do.  Both parents need to be wary of Hawks as the Purple Martins are starting to get a little noisy, and that has already attracted a Red Shouldered Hawk.

Here’s some pictures from the couple today.

Male Bluebird Panting In Heat

Female Bluebird In Afternoon Light

Two items of information to report. “Runt” as I’m calling him/her is still alive.  I fed it just a couple of meal worms this morning. I was hoping to capture some video of how I do this, but the baby doesn’t seem to care for bright light since its eyes just opened.  I also did a thorough nest check.  I have 42 babies.  That’s compared to 40 when I thought I did a good count on May 28

Here are the counts.

Nest 1 = 3 babies

Nest 3 = 4 babies

Nest 5 = 6 babies (I only saw 5 babies on the 28th)

Nest 6 = 6 babies (I only saw 5 babies on the 28th)

Nest 7 = 6 babies

Nest 8 = 6 babies (I only saw 5 babies on the 28th)

Nest 10 = 4 babies + 1 egg (I saw 5 babies on the 28th)

Nest 11 = has a nest, but no eggs or babies

Nest 12 = 4 babies (and 26 days old as of today)

Nest 14 = 1 baby

Nest 16 = 2 babies

Grand total = 42 babies

Male And Female Purple Martin With Mouths Open

4 Bluebird Eggs 2013

She’s probably getting close to laying her final egg if she hasn’t already. I say that because she was inside the nest sitting on top of the eggs and I’ve only seen her do that when she wants to begin incubating them.

Female Eastern Bluebird Checking Out Her 4 Eggs

I’m not sure if you can see her in the picture below, but she is peeking out of the nest.

Female Eastern Bluebird Peeking Out From Nest

From the picture below you can see how it might get a little competitive.  These are little birds but take a big bunch of mealworms with them during each visit.

Tufted Titmouse With Mouth Full Of Mealworms

That has now changed. They just finished building a nest and all that appears missing are a few eggs.  I’m super happy they are going to give me another chance to “foster” them.  I do know that based on the fledglings that they brought to the mealworm feeder, they had 2 babies.

Male Bluebird Watching While Female Builds Nest

Momma Bluebird Getting Ready To Leave The Nest

Male Bluebird Guarding The Nest While Momma Builds

I followed the directions carefully. Nervously the next day I did another nest check.  Picked up one baby, no mites. Ran my fingers through the nest, no mites.  The same scenario occurred in all nests so it appears that stuff really works with no noticeable impact on the birds.

Before I share some of the pictures, let me set the scene for what occurs  If I am out in the backyard, watering, cutting the grass, drinking my latte, many of the adults will temporarily stop their feeding and sit in the tops of the houses and just watch me.  They appear quite curious.  When I lower their nesting boxes, they fly over to the unchecked nests, and once again, just watch.  No loud squawking, dive bombing me, or trying to poop on my head. Strangely they seem relaxed.

I’ll slide the nest box out of the nest and look at a few things. How do the birds look health wise. Are any significantly smaller than the others? How dirty is the nest? Any unhatched eggs.  After all that, and if I am able, I take a picture and put them back in the nest.  They remain as calm as the parents. I’m assuming on some level they don’t view me as a predator, and know my behaviors especially if they are multi-year visitors.

Enough talk, now some pictures.

Baby Martins In Nest Box

Baby Martins All Lined Up In Nest Box

The nest above has 7 baby martins which is about 2 more than my average nests, but so far they look pretty good

Baby Martins With Eyes Just Starting To Open

Here’s an older group just starting to get their wing feathers. This is not the oldest nest. The oldest nest has 4 babies who squawk all the time.  I fully expect some type of hawk will come investigate and then the martins will be in a panic until they chase it off.

What prompted me to create a little video collage is because I saw one of the Carolina Chickadees sitting in the water bowl that I put out for the birds and it was taking a bath.  I didn’t get my camera in time to video that moment, but I did get a few other shots.  If I’m not feeling lazy, and the birds are active, I may try and get up early in the morning when there is better light and see if I can record some additional video.