Baby Bluebird is Growing

This is the photo I took this morning, Sunday at 7:31AM, shortly after we got home from our trip to the coast.  As you can see compared to the previous photo taken on Thursday the baby has grown considerably, and the wide bill is very prominent.  According to one source that I read, the eyes will open on the forth to seventh day. We still have four eggs unhatched, who knows what happened to the sixth egg.  Because it has been at least three days since this baby was hatched, I'm beginning to think the remaining eggs may not be viable. Violet-green Swallows continue to circle and threaten to enter the nest box, so my parental anxiety is still at a high level.

First Bluebird Chick!

Success, we have our first baby Western Bluebird!  This photo was taken this morning at 8:04AM. I've been keeping close tabs on this nesting box in our front yard this week in anticipation of some hatching.  My worry has been the continuing daily circling of Violet-green Swallows that appear to be threatening to enter the Bluebird nesting box.  The Violet-greens had a nesting box of their own also in the front yard.  But after doing a nest box survey over two weeks ago I discovered that they had not even started with any nesting material, where as the Western Bluebirds had not only built a nest, but had eggs.  So in an effort to to get rid of all the Swallow protest, I moved their nesting box to the back yard.  Yet, they continue to swoop and cry and create all kinds of havoc.  We are off to the coast for a few days, so I won't be able to check the box until we get back.  I'm hoping the other eggs will hatch successfully and the Swallows will be kept at bay.

Bluebird Update

We continue to worry daily about our nesting pair of Western Bluebirds.  The Violet-green Swallows are still hanging around and creating lots of congestion in the front yard, even after I moved the box to the backyard, and the female Bluebird seems to spend way more time than we think she should away from the nest.  I checked the nest yesterday while they were away and they still have 6 eggs.  This is what I observed this morning, the female left and she and the male spent time at the suet feeder, then they flew off.  After a while the male came back, looked in the box, and then went in the box.  He then came out, and quick as a wink she was in the box.  It takes 2 weeks for incubation, and that dead line will be coming up this next Monday.  So for now---we still have our fingers crossed.

Western Bluebird Eggs!

Jeanette asked me this afternoon if I had seen the bluebirds today.  They seem to come and go, and we are not really sure if anything is going on with the nest or not. "No", I replied, "I don't think I have". I went to my den window to double check myself, and after looking around the front yard and staring at the blue bird nesting box for awhile I thought I might see a head inside of the entrance.  I got my binoculars and watched as the female squeezed out the opening and flew off to a street lamp post. As I continued to watch she flew back to our front porch gutter, and then flew off to the west in the direction of a green-way. I decided this was the time to find out if anything was going on with the nesting box. I got Jeanette, gave her my cell phone, and we made a quick inspection of the box.  To our complete surprise and astonishment we discovered these six eggs!  Western Bluebirds lay eggs at the pace of one a day, so this has been going on for at least six days.  Incubation takes two weeks, so we will try to wait patiently and keep our fingers crossed that they hatch successfully. By the way, we did a complete inventory of the rest of our nesting boxes, two that have had swallow activity were completely bare, the third had a House Sparrow start up nest, which got emptied.

More On Owl Chicks

Our good friend John West went to Cattail Cove State Park today to get this photo of the Great Horned Owl chicks.  Notice, on the far left is also an adult, which I would assume is the mom.  My guess is the chicks hatched some time around the first week in March, and will probably not be able to leave the nest until around the middle of May.  Even though they can fly then, they will still be dependent of being fed by the parents for a couple of more months. Owls hatch asynchronous, meaning not at the same time, and this is evident if you look at this post and the former post, you can see the three chicks are of different sizes.

Arizona Owl Chicks

I now have photographic evidence of the Great Horned Owl chicks at Cattail Cove State Park!  Regular readers of this blog will remember that Jeanette and I spent January and February volunteering at Cattail Cove State Park in Arizona.  While there, Jeanette was very fortunate to find the small cave where the female Great Horned Owl was starting to nest. This was on February 3rd.  Because the incubation period for Great Horned Owl is approximately 35 days, we were not able to see the chicks before we left at the end of February.  Yesterday we received e-mail from Ron and Alison Husak with an attachment of the above photo. Look close and you can see there are three chicks!  Alison was on some of my bird walks, and so knew the location of the nest, and took the above photo yesterday.  Below is the first photo of the mom on the nest, taken on February 3rd, for comparison.

  

Osprey Obsession

2018 begins my fifth year of paying attention to nesting Osprey in the West Salem Area.  It started with volunteering at the Salem Audubon Nature Reserve on Eola Drive in 2014.  I was captivated with the Osprey that came to the platform that had been installed by Salem Electric.  The next year, returning Osprey to the nest site on Murlark Ave was brought to my attention by friend John West. Then I began keeping track of other sites in West Salem, the site at Patterson Street & 9th, and the site at the ball fields at Wallace Marine Park.  Keeping track of the observations and adding photos is made easy with e-Bird, and now I go to a whole new level of craziness, adding names.  Another birder/photographer on Facebook has come up with the novel idea of assigning names to the Osprey she photographs to help her keep track.  She gives them a name starting with the first letter of the location of the nest site.  So here goes for my collection of nesting Osprey in West Salem this year.

Each year it seems the first nest site to be occupied is the platform on Murlark Ave.  This female was first observed at the site on March 18th this year. A male has now joined her.  I'm thinking Muriel and Merl.

The Patterson & 9th Streets location provided a sighting on March 22nd.  Salem Electric has now installed a live cam which can be viewed via You Tube.  However if the bird is on the perch as in this photo it is out of range from the camera.  This female was photographed on 4/1/18. Patricia & Patrick seem right.

The ball field at Wallace Marine Park has long had an Osprey Nest.  This occupying pair was noted and photographed on March 30.  Wally sits on top of the pole while Wendy sits on the nest.

The site on Eola Drive NW at the Salem Audubon Nature Reserve was the last of the four central West Salem sites to be claimed this year.  I believe this to be the returning male from last year.  I think Ernie fits him.

I don't know that handing out names helps any in keeping track, but it does make them a lot more personable than just referring to them as "the male" or "the female". Names can always be changed, so if you have any better suggestions, please leave a comment.