The Hot Days of Georgia Summer

This is a very busy season for the Bluebird Trail. With all the rain we have had in the past few weeks, the very HOT and humid summer makes for a lot of work for Bluebird parents to raise a family. With the heat outside at around 90 degrees, the temp in the Nest Boxes is well over 100 degrees.

The Nest Boxes are well vented for summer temp like we are having now. The material is a natural un-treated cedar, which also helps with keeping the temp stable. With that being said it is still HOT in the boxes.

We have had a very successful spring and summer so far, with very few mishaps and very few eggs that have not hatched. It is amazing to see how hard the Mom and Dad work to make the nest, the mom to lay her eggs, then sit on them 12 to14 days during this HOT summer weather. Then to feed each of the babies three times every hour for another 17 to 21 days while they are growing and getting strong enough to fledge the nest. Now you can see why we have bluebird feeders placed along the trail, so that food is near by for the parents to be able to feed the young.
                                                                                 

We have a number of Nest Boxes that now have eggs for the third brood in the same Nest Box since we put up the boxes in Feb/March for the season. I think this is amazing, by simply providing a suitable nesting box location, we have increased the population of the Eastern Bluebird. Nest Boxes mimic the natural cavities and in some ways can be improvements upon them. They are usually better situated, have entrance holes that exclude certain other bird competitors, and they are generally drier and better ventilated.

During incubation the female sits almost constantly over the eggs, exposing them to the full warmth of her brood patch. She incubates the eggs for one continuous period during the night and during the day does shorter stretches, periodically leaving the nest to preen and feed. On hot days she may leave the eggs unattended for longer periods of time.

The length of the  nestling phase can vary. For the eastern bluebird, the range is from 16 to 21 days. The shorter nestling phase may result from a variety of factors, including warmer weather, an abundance of prey near the nest, helpers at the nest, or trail monitors who provide extra food in the form of meal worms. We provide food in the form of sunflower hearts and dried meal worms in bluebird feeders at three locations along the bluebird trail presently.This fall we will be adding an additional three feeders for next springs nesting season. 

What is a Fledgling? After 16 to 21 days of the nestling phase, a fledgling is a bird that is out of the nest but still dependent on its parents for food, sometimes jokingly referred to as "college age." Once the fledgling bluebird can gather food on their own, they are termed juvenile birds, for they still have their juvenile plumage. When these birds molt into adult plumage in the fall, they are called adults.

After being away for thirteen days in beautiful Colorado, where the mountain lake temperature was a high of 74 degrees and night time temps around 45 degrees, it was very hard coming back to the Hot Georgia Summer. The Bluebird Trail needs me, so I am back at Green Meadows Preserve and just finished checking all 25 nest boxes today. Listed below is the Nest check data from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Nest Watch.

Total Nest Sites: ( 25 )

Total Nesting Attempts ( 54 )

Total Eggs ( 123 )

Total Young ( 105 )

Total Fledglings ( 101 )

Green Meadows Preserve Bluebird Trail, Where Birds Come to Life!

Thanks for joining me along the Trail... Jim B

PS: Thanks to the Bluebird Book by Donald & Lillian Stokes for great facts and information.