Hello again, Blue Bird enthusiasts, and welcome to Week #8 of the 2009 Mississippi Gulf Coast Blue Bird Trail Survey at the South Mississippi Regional Center in Long Beach!
One of the resident male Blue Birds residing on the premises of the Blue Bird Trail at the SMRC in Long Beach, suns himself during this past week, and provides your author the opportunity to snap an image or two for this post.
It has been an exciting time here for us on the Blue Bird Trail, where 23 Blue Bird babies flew from the nesting boxes during the past week! In last year’s 2008 Week #8 Trail Survey, only 8 Blue Bird babies had yet to fly from the nests.
What an amazing increase in nesting activity over last year at this same time in the season!
The male Blue Bird grabs a bug from the grass to help feed his nearby growing babies, here on the Blue Bird Trail.
In addition, we still have 3 Blue Bird eggs from this first hatch still in incubation in one of the nesting boxes, as well as 5 young Blue Bird babies growing in the boxes.
Potentially, if 3 remaining eggs hatch, and the (then) 8 babies all are able to survive and fly from the nests, we could end up having a total of 31 new Blue Bird babies fly during the first hatch!
The 4 Blue Bird babies in nesting box #7 flew this week, leaving one sterile egg that didn’t hatch, behind.
In the 2008 season, we only had a total of 45 babies fly the nests. Thus, we are guardedly optimistic about the final results that this season could end up achieving.
Needless-to-say, Master Naturalist Buddy John is very pleased about how the 2009 Blue Bird breeding season is progressing.
These very large Blue Bird babies still residing in nesting box #12, will probably fly from the nest within a few days.
Here are the results of today’s Blue Bird Trail Survey – April 24, 2009:
Nest #1 – 1 Blue Bird baby, 3 Blue Bird eggs. – Last Week: 4 Blue Bird eggs.
Nest #2 – 4 Blue Bird babies flew the nest, 1 sterile Blue Bird egg. Removed old nest, cleaned nesting box. – Last Week: 4 large Blue Bird babies, 1 Blue Bird egg.
This image shows how packed down the growing babies make the nest (box #8), just prior to flying from it.
Nest #3 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.
Nest #4 – 5 Blue Bird babies flew the nest. Removed old nest, cleaned nesting box. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird eggs.
Nest #5 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Removed old nest – cleaned box.
In addition to getting mashed down by the growing babies, the nests in the nesting boxes tend to get pretty “dirty” while the babies are in the nest, as nesting box #4 shows in this image.
Nest #6 – 5 Blue Bird babies flew the nest. Removed nest, cleaned nesting box. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird babies.
Nest #7 – 4 Blue Bird babies flew the nest, 1 sterile Blue Bird egg. Removed old nest and sterile egg, cleaned nesting box. – Last Week: 4 Blue Bird babies, 1 Blue Bird egg.
Nest #8 – 5 Blue Bird babies flew the nest, removed the old nest, cleaned nesting box. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird babies.
Nest #9 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Removed old nest – cleaned box.
Nest #10 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.
Nest #11 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Removed old straw – cleaned box.
Nest #12 – 4 large Blue Bird babies, will probably fly from the nest during the coming week. – Last Week: 4 small Blue Bird babies.
Nest #13 – Empty nest, no activity. Last Week: – Removed old nest, cleaned box.
Oh yes, only 37 more days until the gulf coast hurricane season begins. Oh, goody!
And, I saw the first “love bugs” of the spring season flying around today!
Have a great weekend!
Terrific photos! Can’t believe it’s time for the little ones to be flying away.
How interesting!
Thank you for stopping by my blog and putting in your thoughts! It was very sweet of you to take the time to do so =)
Love the pictures and you have a very interesting site, i’ll be looking into this asap!! Have a great week.
This is so exciting, Lance! What does Emily, the tree climbing wonder dog think about this?
I’m from Long Beach and now live in St. Louis. I have Blue birds in my back yard. One nest with 5 eggs. I’m so glad to help blue birds. Thank you also for helping recover from Katrina!