Judy Checks The Bluebird Box

Yesterday, a friend of mine and her son stopped by to see the bluebird box in person. Four, perfect oval blue bird eggs were in the neat bluebird nest. Mom and Pop bluebird were nearby somewhere. They surely must know by now that I pose no harm to their nest. The Purple Martins have departed to where, I know not. I assume they will being to make their annual trek to Brazil where they will spend the winter. I have removed the tape from the entrances to the Purple Martin apartments. The sparrow immediately took up a position outside on of the entrances and started to chirp, advertising his availablity to make a family. So far no takers. Maybe it's too late in the season to start a new brood. I notice that my neighbor's Purple Martin house is also empty of Purple Martins. However, I do see the straw other junk sticking out of one of the doors, thus indicating a sparrow has already made a nest in one of the PM apartments. Grackles have been visiting most of the day today, dirtying up my birdbaths. For some reason, they like to go to the bathroom in the birdbaths. Later on, while I was out changing the water in the birdbaths, I heard a rustle at the base of one of the white pine trees that border my backyard behind the planters and birdbaths. A big, majestic Cooper's Hawk takes flight. I was wondering why there was so much commotion in the sky from the other grackles. As the hawk flew away, the much smaller birds harassed and dive bombed it. A few seconds later other grackles emerged from the base of the other white pines and flew away. Apparently the Law of Nature was taking its course until I interrupted it with my birdbath changing routine. Maybe that hawk will return and make that pesky sparrow his dinner.