It’s Week #14 of the 2009 Long Beach, Mississippi Blue Bird Trail Survey already, with the number of Blue Bird eggs and new babies hatched this season, continuing to grow.
A female Blue Bird peers out of her nesting box in this April 2008 file image.
This first Trail Survey of June 2009, found Master Naturalist Buddy John and your author doing the Survey with the weather here in Long Beach being partly cloudy, a light breeze and the temperature in the mid-80s. Not too shabby, compared to what’s coming in the next 3 months.
We were excited to find twelve new Blue Bird babies hatched during this past week, bringing the total so far this Second Hatch, to 26 babies, and for the Season, to 54 babies hatched.
When we opened Nesting Box #6 during today’s Survey, we found 3 newly hatched babies, 1 baby in the process of coming out of the egg, and one egg still intact.
When we opened the front cover on Nesting Box #6 this afternoon, we were greeted with 3 brand new babies, one more in the process of coming out of an egg, and one egg still whole. Since we started doing the Trail Survey in February 2008, this is the first time we had seen one of the Blue Bird babies hatching.
Here are Survey Totals this 2009 Season so far:
First Hatch Totals:
33 eggs laid total, 5 of which were sterile.
28 Blue Bird babies flew the nest.
Second Hatch Totals (so far):
36 eggs laid total, 3 of which were lost to a predator.
7 eggs in nesting boxes currently. – Last Week: 19 eggs in nesting boxes.
26 babies in nesting boxes currently. – Last Week: 14 babies in nesting boxes.
2009 Season Totals (so far):
69 eggs laid: 5 have been sterile, 3 lost to a predator. – Last Week: Same total as this week. Last Year: 56 eggs laid, 12 sterile, 5 lost to predators, as of Week #14.
28 babies have flown the nest. – Last Week: Same as this week. Last Year: 24 babies had flown the nest as of Week #14.
7 eggs in nesting boxes currently. – Last Week: 19 eggs.
26 babies in nesting boxes currently. – Last Week: 14 babies.
Large Blue Bird babies in Nesting Box #13, during today’s Survey.
During the week, one of the Center staff, spotted a large, furry critter trying to climb up the mounting pole of nesting box #7. After hearing of that close predator call, rather than take any further chance on possibly losing babies in this box, to this or other climbing predators, I applied lithium grease to the exterior of the 2″ plastic conduit pole, to hopefully keep the critter out of the nesting box, and away from the babies.
We’ll see if it works.
Here are the results of Friday’s Blue Bird Trail Survey – June 5, 2009:
Nesting Box #1 – 3 Blue Bird babies, 1 Blue Bird egg. – Last Week: 4 Blue Bird eggs.
Nesting Box #2 – 5 Blue Bird eggs. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird eggs; Mama Blue Bird went right to work and laid 4 new eggs during the past week.
Nesting Box #3 – Empty nesting box, no activity. – Last Week: No new activity, nest removed, box cleaned.
Nesting Box #4 – 5 new Blue Bird babies. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird eggs.
Nesting Box #5 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.
Nesting Box #6 – 3 new Blue Bird babies, 1 hatching at Survey time, 1 egg not hatched yet. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird eggs.
Large Blue Bird babies in nesting Box #11 during today’s Survey.
Nesting Box #7 – 4 Blue Bird babies. – Last Week: 4 Blue Bird babies.
Nesting Box #8 – Empty nesting box, no activity. – Last Week: Some straw, no new activity, removed straw, cleaned box.
Nesting Box #9 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.
Nesting Box #10 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.
Nesting Box #11 – 5 Large Blue Bird babies. – Last Week: 5 new Blue Bird babies.
Nesting Box #12 – Empty nesting box, no activity. – Last Week: Some straw in box, no new activity, removed straw, cleaned box.
Nesting Box #13 – 5 Large Blue Bird babies. – Last Week: 5 Blue Bird babies.
Have a great week!
P.S.-
Now that the Hurricane Season is officially here, for the next several months, I will be paying closer attention to the Weather Channel “Tropical Update.”
I love that first shot – it’s what I think of when I think of blue birds.
How exciting that you saw one emerging. I have always been enamored with the process of birds hatching. Very cool!
Catching an egg actually hatching? How exciting is that?
Wow…how neat to see baby birds so “brand new”. That’s a terriffic shot! I, too, have been tuning in to the Weather Channel quite a bit lately.