Michael & Liz are Bloggable

At the beginning of the year, I put up our birdhouse again in the backyard in the same spot as last year. Last year the house was incredibly successful. We had two broods live in the house and successfully fledge. The total number of babies that fledged for us was 8. I might be dreaming when I say I'd like to beat that, but it would be very difficult and slightly out of my hands. We had no problem getting them to use the house. This year however, started off much much differently. This is the story of the Backyard Birdhouse Brawl.

In one corner we have the black and white bomber. The underdog from the south. Weighing in at .3 ounces, with a wingspan of 7 inches, it's the... Carolina Chickadee!

At the end of January we had two little chickadees start to make their way into our house. For a while they were just checking it out. Landing on the entrance and then immediately flying away. They set a few little scraps inside almost as if to claim the place. Then all of a sudden during one of the weeks in January/February, we saw the Mom and Dad chickadees going in and out of the house with pine and fur to build a nest. It might have been Daisy's fur, oh the circle of life. We looked in after just a few days and the nest had become fully built. It felt like they were going to make a brood any minute.

Then in the other corner we have the blue streak from the sky. The beast from the east. Weighing in at 1 whole ounce, with a wingspan of 11 inches, it's the... Eastern Bluebird!

The time frame is right around the beginning of February. Right when the chickadees have a nest fully built and it looks like they'll get a brood going, the bluebirds come by to check out what happened to their house from last year. The Mom and Dad blue birds land on the house, go in and start taking scraps out of the house. Spring Cleaning maybe? They take three or four trips taking nest scraps out out of the house when all of a sudden the chickadees show up... angry. Yeah, we'll go with angry.

All hell breaks loose. The chickadees start dive bombing the bluebirds and it looks like mini-planes strafing during a war. The chickadees successfully scare off the bluebirds and that's where the story pretty much ends.

For an entire month, until the beginning of March, there was very little bird activity. But no changes with the nest. No birds consistently coming or going. Granted we are working all day so we don't see everything, but based on evening activity, you can pretty much tell what's going on. The last thing we want is a wasted year with no birds living in the house. That would just be depressing. Any chance a fight like that and a half built nest from a scared off bird would ruin the house for the year? I wasn't going to take that chance, so I poured out the half built/half destroyed nest and left the birdhouse empty.

Since then, there has been almost no activity. A few scraps of pine were left in the house from someone, but no bird stayed around long to stake claim on the house... until today.

Today at lunch I saw bluebirds coming and going constantly. The Mom was building the nest, the Dad was just watching... typical lazy males :). Now we have a fully built bluebird nest and I am super psyched to get some eggs in there. Last years eggs showed up right at the beginning of April so we are right on time! Here's the nest that was built today (fyi, i know the picture is terrible and fuzzy):


Can't wait to see what happens... soon it will be time to get the Sparrow Spooker out again...