The Hennepin County Bluebird group gathered for their annual fall get together to share their season’s trail experiences and see who had the best site to fledge ratio. The group was smaller this year, but everyone had a good time.

– Lisa McIntire – Assistant County Coordinator 

Washington  County – June 24, 2023

 

Another cool, wet spring delayed nesting for about a month again this year. First bluebird sighting was 4/13/23. First nests were recorded on 5/3/23, 4 of them. After that, activity picked up like crazy.

Swallows are prolific this year, occupying 32 of the 59 boxes. But the bluebirds are holding their own despite. Box check on 6/21 showed 31 fledged, 15 chicks still in the nest and 7 eggs laid for a second brood. A warm, dryer spring might have resulted in less swallow nests in the bluebird boxes, as the swallows arrive after the bluebirds up here. Maybe next year. 

One box had 4 eggs laid on the bare bottom of the box, with no nest built at all. I was curious to watch this unfold, but unfortunately a bear hit that box, tipping it over, and it was abandoned by the parents.

Bears hit 7 boxes in the last 2 weeks, 3 bluebird and 4 swallow nests. New bluebird nests were started in 4 of those after they were repaired and remounted. No bear predation since then. The new style boxes held up great to this predation, suffering no damage. Straightening out the conduit poles and remounting was all that was needed. The 1 Peterson style box hit by a bear was torn to pieces!

A couple of things I’ve done to the new style boxes to improve them: 

For the wooden floors of the boxes, I’ve inserted a plastic food container cover on the bottom, for easier clean out. I did this because one box of four chicks died and by the time I checked the box the next week, it was a gooey, stinky mess that had soaked into the wood. Took a bit of cleaning/disinfecting to get that out of the wood. I experimented with 5 boxes to begin with. The bluebird (and swallows) seem to have no problem with this, nesting as normal. I’m putting those all the new boxes now. Below is a picture of the nestless box with 4 eggs, it shows the red cover I’ve been using in the bottom of my boxes.

So, a fair nesting season so far, with promising results of second broods underway
– Jean Olsen

Fillmore and Houston County – May 6, 2023