Comments for WOOLWINE HOUSE BLUEBIRD TRAIL

Comment on GORGEOUS ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY OF A BLUEBIRD. by lisa trujillo

lisa trujillo — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:48:01 +0000

this is beautiful, I would like to send you one I took of the Mrs. Blue coming out the the house after feeding her 3 babies that about 10 days old, not sure how to do that unless I post it on your fqce book page. the looks like a torpedo ith wings to her size and you can almost see the breeze she is got going on behind her….LOL

Comment on GORGEOUS ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY OF A BLUEBIRD. by jmgoyder

jmgoyder — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:55:12 +0000

Lovely quote – I’ve never heard it before – thanks!

Comment on GENTLE REMOVAL OF AN UNHATCHED EGG. by jmgoyder

jmgoyder — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:43:52 +0000

Our duck is sitting on numerous eggs, some of which are outside her girth. I am hopeful that we’ll get a few ducklings but I think the ones she can’t keep warm are gonners.

Comment on DIFFERENT LOOKING BLUEBIRD EGG CLUTCHES – MARCH 2012 by jmgoyder

jmgoyder — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 03:48:27 +0000

So interesting!

Comment on HERE THEY COME! FIRST HATCHING 2012 on the WHBBT. by jmgoyder

jmgoyder — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:10:26 +0000

Fantastic!

Comment on HERE THEY COME! FIRST HATCHING 2012 on the WHBBT. by Penelope Hillemann (@penelopedia)

Penelope Hillemann (@penelopedia) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:12:11 +0000

Exciting! We are just getting started with our first nest boxes and appreciate all the good information on your beautiful blog. I’ll be blogging our experiences as well.

Comment on HERE THEY COME! FIRST HATCHING 2012 on the WHBBT. by Susan Traxel Martin

Susan Traxel Martin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:29:53 +0000

Congrats on a successful (1st reported) clutch – we do things right in Patrick County! Thanks for all you do to make this trail successful. Lovely photos!

Comment on WOW! EARLY BLUEBIRD EGG on MARCH 8, 2012! by lisa trujillo

lisa trujillo — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:47:59 +0000

I have 3 eggs here in Stafford, Va. She laid her 1st egg on or around march 12th but may have been a few days earlier because I hadn’t checked the box before that. Her nest was finished on march 6th so not sure if she laid them before the 12th or not. can’t wait for this season of many bluebirds!!!

Comment on About Me by Woolwine House Bluebird Trail

Woolwine House Bluebird Trail — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:09:15 +0000

Hi, Lynn. Thanks for the suggestion. It has been linked on other sites in past; specifically, the Virginia Bluebird Society has it on their website (www.virginiabluebirds.org). I have not contacted NABS about this page (yet). I’m glad you enjoy visiting here!

Comment on About Me by Lynn Dodge

Lynn Dodge — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:37:43 +0000

Have you ever put this website link & the NABS link up on the Eastern Bluebird Landlords Facebook page? Love your website! It was nice to see David Kinner’s photo. I use to go to his website years ago & was amazed by the BB photos he took but he must have removed them.

Comment on CLUTCH OF 3 WHITE EGGS HATCHED AUGUST 4, 2011 – 5 DAYS LATER THAN EXPECTED. by Woolwine House Bluebird Trail

Woolwine House Bluebird Trail — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:15:14 +0000

Hi, Cindy! I agree….not sure if LUCK is the word, but it certainly keeps things interesting. I continue to learn so much year after year! It’s fun to discover something new along my trail. If the news is not so good, I learn from it, try to share it with others, and keep good records and summaries to use in the future, and do all I can so it won’t happen again. Sometimes things happen, no matter how hard we try. That is why monitoring nestboxes is important. I can’t believe I’ve been bluebirding now for 6 years. Before that, I only knew a little about there being a species of a bird called the “bluebird”.

Comment on CLUTCH OF 3 WHITE EGGS HATCHED AUGUST 4, 2011 – 5 DAYS LATER THAN EXPECTED. by Cindy brown

Cindy brown — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:39:45 +0000

Amazing photos! You are so lucky to have white Bluebird eggs!

Comment on CUTE PHOTOS OF A BLUEBIRD FAMILY EATING TOGETHER….SHARED BY A SUBSCRIBER. by Cindy Brown

Cindy Brown — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:18:26 +0000

Great Photos….Went to our place in Roberts Cove, LA and cleaned out our boxes. They are ready for next spring!

Comment on MY PLAN: COMBATING the BLOWFLY PROBLEM FOR 2010 by Woolwine House Bluebird Trail

Woolwine House Bluebird Trail — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:05:05 +0000

Hi, Michael. I wrote to you privately about this recently, but long-story short for the benefit of others reading here, just increase the short puffs of the DE powder (ORGANIC food-grade DE, not commercial pool grade) underneath the nest by the wood floor and distribute evenly in sections–a couple short puffs here and there and lift the tip up to the center of the nest and insert and a few more puffs in the center of the nest should do it–in center and to the sides a little bit in the nest materiasl where the larvae may try to sneak by avoiding center. I have found MOST larvae do go to the base of the nest, but some stay inside it. We don’t want hatchlings, or the male or female adult birds for that matter, to get any of the DE dust in their eyes or on their wings. Be sure to cover the nest FIRST before applying DE with some type of soft, clean cloth, completely covering the nest and eggs–keeps any of the DE dust from going inside the box and settling down on the nest and eggs. I suggest doing this BEFORE hatching. After the DE dust has settled and before removing the cloth that is laid over the top of the nest, just take your soft brush (I use a soft, small paintbrush) and dust away any excess DE powder on the edge of the nest material and on any sections of the wood and underneath the box AWAY from the box, then remove the cloth by pulling forward towards you and out of the box and immediately put that cloth into a plastic bag and close it, and then quickly close the box and leave. The female, who is incubating those eggs, should return shortly. I’ve had no loss of baby birds from this technique of applying the organic DE powder. I try to balance “not too much” application (no overdoing it!)but just enough to kill MOST (won’t be all) larvae. After I remove the nest after fledging, I inspect it, even dissecting it, to see how many larvae COULD have caused damage to the baby birds. GOAL: Kill larvae before they are large enough to latch onto hatchlings at night after the parents stop feeding. I hope to make a video on how I actually do this sometime in the future and posting it. It has been a time-saver for me, and a live-saver for the baby birds. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Sometimes the larvae survive and still get to the baby birds. As long as they can maintain strength to lift their heads and consume food, they will grow, develop the bones and feathers, and WILL fledge when they are ready…possibly a few days later than the average fledge age. When I monitor, I do watch their development. I estimate fledging dates to development. The earliest I’ve seen on my trail for healthy baby bluebirds is Day 15. The latest I’ve seen is Day 21. The average on my own trail in my locale is Day 17-18, weather permitting. If it’s raining or very cold or they see potential danger to their youngsters, the parents delay coaxing their kids out of the box.

Comment on MY PLAN: COMBATING the BLOWFLY PROBLEM FOR 2010 by Michael

Michael — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:30:41 +0000

Good Morning,
I was reading your article and we have also tried DE to manage blowflys. Our success has been less than stellar. We live in Michigan and have been hit pretty hard by these nasty little things. It is our conclusion that the larve are not affected by the use of DE. If you are having success or if you have found something that works for you, we would love to hear from you.

Thank you very much,

Michael & Kelley

Comment on PHOTOS OF AN INCUBATING FEMALE BLUEBIRD: DID SHE TRUST ME? by Cindy Brown

Cindy Brown — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:12:41 +0000

Amazing photos!

Comment on THE LOVELY TREE SWALLOW — A NATIVE CAVITY-NESTING BIRD USING OUR NESTBOXES. by Woolwine House Bluebird Trail

Woolwine House Bluebird Trail — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:05:16 +0000

Thanks for your remarks on the tree swallow, Sue. Regarding the dead babies and only one making it, more than likely it was due to blowfly infestation in the nest and the other babies were anemic from loss of blood and not strong enough to take in the food. The other baby may have had more strength to take in food and was able to grow muscles and feathers to be able to fledge in spite of having larvae on his body at night. This is where monitoring nestboxes helps the birds. If you want more information on this, please see my tabbed paged PROBLEMS or contact me further for more information. You can also go to the best bluebird site out there, http://www.sialis.org, and look up blowfly…specifically this link will direct you to that page: http://www.sialis.org/forumlinks.htm#blow . It would take too much space on this reply to this post to explain what we monitors due to combat the problem of the blowfly and how we can easily deal with it in the nestbox so the nestlings can fledge. I deal with this for all of my boxes on my trail. As an learning new bluebirder when I started my trail in 2008, I lost baby bluebirds to this situation. At the time, I had no idea what happened. This is all part of learning about managing nestboxes I also had snake predation–before predator guards were used–ants, gnats, wasps (still deal with wasps in some boxes), house wren issues, and house sparrows at one location near town where my two-hole test is now located. The blowfly problem took place in ALMOST every nestbox. I attended the North American Bluebird Society’s annual convention in Grantville, PA, in 2009 and learned more about this problem in nestboxes and all the options of dealing with it. In nature, we cannot do anything about this problem. Being a landlord to a manmade nestbox gives us the opportunity to help the birds along. I hope this information in reply to your post helps.

Comment on THE LOVELY TREE SWALLOW — A NATIVE CAVITY-NESTING BIRD USING OUR NESTBOXES. by Sue Boyd

Sue Boyd — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:43:44 +0000

Thanks for the article on the Tree Swallow as I think they are amazing & fun to watch. Last year was the first year we had a swallow in a nest box. Only one made it out and we found the rest dead in the box. This year I think the same is happening but I could be wrong. There always seems to be one little swallow “hogging” up the hole and gets all of the food. I know there are at least two in the box alive because I’ve taken pictures of them. Also, a “gang” of swallows keep coming to the box at certain times of the day. I’m wondering if they are sibblings in a way. They seem like they are trying to coax the little fellow out although he still looks a little small for me. The pictures are wonderful on here today.

Comment on BLUEBIRD PREDATORS! THE DREADED HOUSE SPARROWS by Woolwine House Bluebird Trail

Woolwine House Bluebird Trail — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:26:08 +0000

Hi, Carolyn. I’m so sorry to hear you lost bluebird babies. For me to know more about the situation, can you explain in more detail of your nestbox setup (use of any predator guards and what they are), how is the nestbox installed and where, approximate age of the babies that were taken, any sign of scratch marks, such as from a raccoon claw, or any nesting material coming out of the entry hole, any sign of blood droplets? Did you look on the ground by the box for the babies? Did you find dead babies inside the nestbox, but one survived and fledged later? If you prefer, I can Email you privately on this. Let me know. If we discuss here, it will be educational for others to read on this site. I want to help you troubleshoot what happened, but I need more information. I hope to hear back from you.

Comment on BLUEBIRD PREDATORS! THE DREADED HOUSE SPARROWS by Carolyn Rothenberger

Carolyn Rothenberger — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:47:07 +0000

We had had good luck with our Bluebirds for the past 3 years until now~ this year something killed all but one of our babies~ thank goodness he escaped. Four days later they are rebuilding and I am so worried that whatever killed them will do so again. Is there anything we can do to keep this from happening?