bluebirds

Even at the height of summer, winter is never far away in the minds of those who live here. Farmers have just finished up the first of two cuttings of hay in the fields in order to carry livestock through the winter season. Coincidentally, the bluebirds typically fledge two broods of babies over the summer and the first batch takes to the skies around the time of first cuttings.

As the bluebirds are getting ready to fledge, there is a lot of activity around the birdhouse as the parents try to keep up with the babies voracious appetites. Then when they fledge, the activity level drops off to zero. Things were very quiet around the birdhouse the other day so I went out to see if all was well. Sure enough, the babies had flown away. I opened up the house, and cleaned out all of the debris from this first hatching. It gets very dirty in there. When I got done, the mature birds looked happy with the results.

We have had bluebirds in that nest for maybe 10 years. I was shocked when I dredged up this photo to see how new it was then compared with how aged it is now. I love having the birds there in the summer, but I do feel almost partially responsible for how they fare. I worry about them. So with two hatchings a year for 10 years with about 4 new birds per hatch, that's somewhere around 70-80 new bluebirds in the world. It's not unusual in the late winter to see the family of bluebirds come to visit the house in anticipation of the spring breeding season. One winter our daughter-in-law, Ellen, lived here, and she said that she saw them out there all winter long. They are such beautiful birds, and a delight to have around during our summer season.