Bluebirds Growing Fast

The second batch of baby bluebirds is growing fast! I haven't been checking this batch as often as I checked the first batch. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that this bluebird box held four pastel blue eggs. Judging by the knowing eyes of the baby bluebirds this morning, it looks like they will be out of their nest sometime next week. Then the bluebird box will be empty until next year.

The Purple Martins continue to reproduce. I thought I had a problem a few days ago. One of the baby Purple Martins was on the ground at the base of the Purple Martin house but couldn't fly. For about four hours the young Purple Martin tried to fly but couldn't. Except for a few feeble flaps of its wings, it stayed on the ground, waiting for its parents to feed it. It's a good thing I don't have cats because they would have made quick work of that vulnerable young bird.

Bill was getting concerned that the young Purple Martin would die from the heat. He suggested that I put it back in it's nest in one of the Purple Martin house compartments. I wondered if this was the same baby Purple Martin I had rescued a few weeks ago who was also at the base of the birdhouse. The bird I rescued was so young it's eyes weren't even open and it had not developed any feathers yet. I pulled down the Purple Martin house and placed it in one of the compartments with other young birds about its same age. That is the same thing I did with this new baby Purple Martin I found, I placed it back in the same nest.

Alas, the next day there it was again, flapping around at the base of the Martin birdhouse. Bill and I decided to leave it there and let Mother Nature take it's course. Good news. About an hour later there was no baby Purple Martin flapping around at the base of the birdhouse. We missed the takeoff but that is apparently what happened. After a slow start, that baby Purple Martin is now soaring with its brothers and sisters. Mission accomplished!

Bird Rescue

About an hour ago while I was doing some yard work out back I noticed that the Purple Martin house was very quiet. That usually indicates a problem. I looked up and saw the Taliban House Sparrow barrel out of one of the gourds. He’s back. I went over and pulled down the Purple Martin house (as I have done many times this spring) and checked all the apartments. All apartments had either baby Purple Martins, eggs, and one had Mom sitting on her eggs (she wasn’t disturbed by me.)

In one of the apartments one egg was in the forefront. I felt it and it was cold. The nest in the back held four warm eggs. I took the cold egg out. I don’t know how it got to the front of the apartment but it obviously was abandoned.

I checked both gourds. One held a neat nest which was obviously the former swallow nest. The other gourd was stuffed with just about every kind of weed and trash that you can imagine. That’s a Taliban Sparrow nest. I checked it for eggs. None were there…..yet. I left the nest. I’ll wait until Taliban lays its eggs then I’ll get rid of the whole thing. That seems to be the only way to keep this varmint under control and out of my bird boxes and birdhouses.

As I was raising the Purple Martin house, I noticed a broken egg at my feet. Then I noticed a live, naked baby Purple Martin on the ground. I have no idea how it got there. Maybe it was one of those eggs hatched near the entrance to one of the apartments. A week ago I noticed there were two eggs at the front of one of the apartments but I left them there. Thank goodness I didn’t step on this defenseless baby Purple Martin. It surely would have died if left on the ground. The poor thing didn’t even have its eyes opened yet.

I gently lifted it up and put it in the nest with the other naked baby Purple Martins. I’m not sure if it belonged in that nest. If not, I hope that the mama Purple Martin doesn’t mind an extra mouth to feed.

I didn’t think to take a picture because I was anxious to get the baby Purple Martin back into the safety of a nest. Actually, I wouldn’t want to post a picture anyway of the poor thing lying on the ground. I did take some pictures of the activity around the Purple Martin house after my rescue, one of which I posted on this blog.

Whenever I rescue one of nature’s critters in harm’s way, I feel a complete sense of fulfillment. There were a lot of other things that happened today, some good, some bad. But the day ended well. My day is complete.