Yesterday afternoon, Shara and I checked all of the bluebird nesting boxes at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy. To our surprise, there was very little nesting activity. We only found two boxes (out of ten) with active nests. Both were occupied by Tree Swallows.
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| Tree Swallow nestlings (photo by Shara LeValley) |
If you look closely, there are six nestlings in this picture. Five of them are obvious while the sixth on is partially obscured by the feather on the bottom right of the image. At this stage, the nestlings basically do nothing but eat and sleep. Both parents were fully occupied with catching enough flying insects to feed their growing brood.
We did see an adult male Eastern Bluebird in the field where the nest boxes are located, but did not find a bluebird nest. He kept flying toward a nearby woodland so it seems likely that this year the bluebirds found a natural cavity to nest in.
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