Bluebird Nestwatch, Day 51

  I think, I hope, it's possible…they've hatched. Circumstantial evidence suggests hungry new nestling bluebirds, still too tiny to peep. Not 100% sure, since I can't hear them yet, but there's a lot more entering and leaving of the nest today, by both parents, at closer intervals, like every ten minutes. At least once I saw him enter when she was away, with a morsel that he prepared by smashing it on a bare branch before taking it in. Feeding babies?

But, boo-hoo, unless I've calculated wrong, this means I'll miss the fledge, as I'm scheduled to be out of town from April 27 to May 10th. Guidebooks offer different timetables, but the range for time from hatch to fledge is generally 15-21 days. If today is hatching day, then fledge day could be anytime from Apr 28-May 4. Poor timing for a trip.

Worthy trip, though. First to Boston for the New England SCBWI spring conference, then to Lansing, Michigan for one daughter's graduation, followed by a birding expedition at Indiana's Chain O' Lakes State Park.

 If I clean out the nest on return from trip, and if I'm lucky, the bluebirds will start another brood. The other two bluebird nestwatches I've conducted both ended in disappointment. One year I missed the moment of fledge for a doctor's appointment (grrr!). Another year the eggs never hatched (reason unknown), though the parents gave it a valiant effort, tending the eggs for about two weeks beyond normal hatching time before finally abandoning them.

Here's hoping 2016 will be the year. dkm

The eggs that never hatched,  May 2012 

One day after missing  the fledge, May 2011

Wonder of Wonders . . .

. . . Miracle of miracles, a pair of bluebirds is researching the copper-roofed birdhouse this morning---the same day I embark on a new game plan for the manuscript that has consumed the last five years of my life. Here's hoping the bluebirds will be my companions through this 8th, (8th! ) revision. If I complete it within a nesting season, THAT will be a miracle, too.

So I set a new goal today. Finish the 8th draft of The Wayback Letters by the time the last clutch of bluebirds fledges. (August?)

Last year, a male bluebird attempted the same birdhouse, but my feisty father housewren, whose nest I chronicled in this blog, drove him off. Mr. Bluebird must have persevered somewhere nearby, however, b/c I saw a pair of adult bluebirds occasionally throughout the 2009 season, and even spied a fledgling on the tomato stakes one day in late summer.

I've not seen or heard signs of the housewren nesters yet this season. They don't usually begin until April. Clever bluebirds beat them to it. Early bird gets the house. dkm