Monday, June 04, 2012

Bluebird Experiment

I had never seen a bluebird until we moved to Indiana.  We planted a lot of trees in our back yard and every year I noticed that bluebirds would stop by in the Spring, apparently looking for nesting spots, and not finding any, they would move on.
So we bought a bluebird house, installed it among the Bald Cypress trees in the back and immediately some sparrows moved in.  
For the last three years I've been moving the sparrows out, sometimes up to twelve of their messy nests per spring to discourage them and let them know they were not welcome.  This year I put up another nest box on the theory that the sparrows would quickly move into one and then the other would be there for the bluebirds.
It worked.  Four bluebird eggs now rest in a finely crafted nest.
So I thought, what could I do to encourage the bluebirds and help them with their parenting responsibilities?  Well, I could provide meal worms.  So today I bought 1,000 meal worms (stored in the refrigerator) that I will ration out over the next few weeks so mom and dad bluebird won't have to fly very far to get food.
In addition, and this is the crazy part, the lady at the Wild Bird store told me to take the food out at the same time every day and...believe it or not...whistle the same tune while walking to the bird feeder so the bluebirds know it's me and I'm bringing them food.  She said they will get to where they are expecting the food to be delivered.
O...K...  So today I whistled "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go.....etc. etc." the mama bluebird flew out of the bird house and about an hour later the male had found the meal worms and grapes I left for them.  
Yes, I feel a little ridiculous, but we're having fun and I hope before too long there will be some baby bluebirds jumping out of their nest trying out their wings.

1 Comments:

At 7:23 PM, Blogger mkhughes said...

Now that room service. I'm glad you found a second job, and that it's not too time consuming every day.

Martha

 

Post a Comment

<< Home