Five baby bluebirds!

Awesome! All five eggs have hatched safely, so we are off and running with a full and very crowded bluebird nest. This morning when I went out and tapped on the side of the nestbox, the mama bluebird stayed inside. I wasn’t 100 percent sure she was there, so I very tentatively opened the box, and there she was. It is quite amazing how flat and small she can look when she’s crouched down. Now, just as a disclaimer, I’m not unaware that this is intrusive and even perhaps scary to the bluebirds, so I try to be as quick, quiet, and infrequent as possible. That said, I’m equally convinced that birds are part of God’s creation, created for the enjoyment of His children. I’m careful not to harm them, so a daily peek on how they’re doing is quite okay in my book. Plus I feed them free mealworms! Well, free to them, not to me. :-)  

Here’s a different picture a little closer (above) and then one below it that might be too close for some of you. Remember the opening scene from Disney’s animated classic Aladdin? There’s a diminutive man outside the bazaar inviting us to come close and listen to the story he’s going to tell us. “Come clo-ooo-ser,” he drawls, to which the camera immediately zooms in right on top of his face and pins him against a wall. “Too close! Too close!” he manages to squeeze out from his mashed face… remember?… ah yes, I can tell you remember it by your perplexed faces. Very funny sequence, right? “Stick to birds, Dave,” you’re saying. Well, I thought it was funny…

Oh well, the reason for the extreme close-up is to show you where the fifth bird is, in case you haven’t found it yet. He’s buried under his siblings in the bottom right corner of the nest. You can see his beak there in this “Too close! Too close!” picture. At any rate, it also gives you an amazing look at the little hairs that cover these nestlings right now. We’ll call today day three of their development since they were born at different points on Saturday (or maybe even Sunday morning for that last egg). So, Sunday was day 1 (follow along at home, kids), Monday was day 2… well, you get the idea. We can check the box up until day 10, but at that point we risk startling them out of the nest before they can fly. I’ll have fresh pics and more silliness for you tomorrrow!  Dave

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