During nesting season I set aside the Friday walks to check my bird houses. Two houses are put within 10 feet of each other w/ the idea that one will be taken over by a pair of tree swallows and one by a bluebird pair. The tree swallows are very territorial but will allow bluebirds in the vicinity. Each pair of houses is at least 500 feet from another house pairing (but I read that the new recommendation this year is 1000 feet.) I'm currently down to 14 houses due to a bear wreaking a pair of houses this week. On today's walk I found one house had 4 bluebird eggs. Another six houses held a total of 25 tree swallow eggs. There was a dead tree swallow in one house. She had been pecked to death and I suspect house sparrows were the culprits. Sad to see such a beautiful bird gone but it's all part of life and death in the real world.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Tree Swallow eggs
During nesting season I set aside the Friday walks to check my bird houses. Two houses are put within 10 feet of each other w/ the idea that one will be taken over by a pair of tree swallows and one by a bluebird pair. The tree swallows are very territorial but will allow bluebirds in the vicinity. Each pair of houses is at least 500 feet from another house pairing (but I read that the new recommendation this year is 1000 feet.) I'm currently down to 14 houses due to a bear wreaking a pair of houses this week. On today's walk I found one house had 4 bluebird eggs. Another six houses held a total of 25 tree swallow eggs. There was a dead tree swallow in one house. She had been pecked to death and I suspect house sparrows were the culprits. Sad to see such a beautiful bird gone but it's all part of life and death in the real world.
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Could also have been a wren. They are nasty birds and do this to bluebirds. How close to the woods was the nest. The wrens that cause this type of trouble usually are only near the edge of a woods.
Flip
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