The little adolescent bluebird deserves a second photo on this blog and an abject apology from me. Contrary to my initial opinion of her, she, and it seems obvious now that it's a female, was not "annoying mama" as I thought, but learning what the birthing process was all about so she could help with the nestlings when they hatched. And that is what she is doing with great enthusiasm now. I watched her search diligently in the yard this morning for a worm and she came up with one, or a part of one, about 2" long. She chewed and chewed on it for several minutes (she IS still a youngster) until she got it down to less than half, then popped into the house and fed it to the babies. I was sooooo proud of her! Mama and Papa are feeding these three little ones now, too, and if those babies are eating everything that's brought to them, they'll be ready to fly in no time!
I did read in my bird book that a pair of bluebirds would sometimes allow a fledgling from one brood to tag along and help with the second one....and in looking up my records from 1994 I see that during our first nesting of these birds in our yard, that pair did the same thing. I just didn't know at the time that it was a young one from an earlier hatching.
3 comments:
Mary, I just love your stories about the bluebirds. I hope you are writing these stories down and saving them for the grands,along with photos of each years bluebirds.
she is such a little sweetie.... I, too, love hearing about all the birdies.....
we had robins nesting in our juniper earlier this summer...now one is in the small Hawthorn tree. I wonder if she is the same Mama. I hope I didn't scare her while trimming off old daisies in the garden. I stood up right under the darn tree and looked directly into an eye... I had no idea they had a nest in it. I quickly backed right up so as not to startle her off the nest....don't want to go too close for fear of frightening her...but, sort of wander around near the tree now to see if I can see any babies.... not so far. She is always just sitting there...so I guess they are still just eggs....
Such a sweet mama. My favorite thing to do is watch our birds.
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