Monday, March 30, 2015

Bluebirds vs Chickadees

I have spent most of the month working hard in the yard (weather permitting).  I had several projects such as tearing down an old part of the deck and clearing ivy and wisteria that I definitely wanted to get accomplished before the temperatures began to rise and snakes came out.

I have been working hard on some much needed landscaping projects also.  Some areas I wanted to be well underway before spring migration kicked in to high gear.

Back in February, the Bluebirds began checking out the various houses in the yard.  The Chickadees took possession of one of the houses that the Bluebirds had seemed to favor and began building their nest about two weeks ago.

Yesterday and more so today I noticed that the Bluebirds were spending a great deal of time looking at the house and going in and out of that box.  Needless to say the Chickadees were upset and despite swooping relentlessly at the Bluebirds, they appear to have lost.

The male Bluebird eventually brought out one egg that had been laid by the Chickadees.  I could not help but to feel sorry for them.  I guess that is the way nature works.




The male then spent time bringing out material the Chickadees had used for nest building.  I hope after ripping apart the Chickadee nest and taking off their egg, they will go ahead and nest in that box.






4 comments:

Unknown said...

We had BB checking our box and haven't seen them for a couple of weeks. I didn't know that they actually will remove a nest from their box.

Glad that spring is finally here.

Coppertop said...

I left a comment yesterday but guess it didn't publish.

I was surprised as well that blue birds will do this. Hope they do use the box for their own nest now.

Hoping we get some blue birds here this year.

Nature Girl said...

Hi Gladys, Sorry for the late response. It was new to me also to see one actually clearing out an already established nest. I guess they really wanted that box. Very glad for spring.

Nature Girl said...

Hi Liz, It surprised the heck out of me too. They are really guarding the box now. The male looks in at least a dozen times a day. Hopefully you will get some BB's this year. They are such fun to watch.