Wordless Wednesday…A Murder Most FOWL
We had a bit of a conundrum last Friday at the Streib aviaryBNB.
Mama bluebird built her nest, and Larry and I’ve been waiting for the first egg. We returned from our walk, turned on the nestbox camera and…Yea!! AN EGG!
We were ecstatic! I took a snapshot, but it was dark, so Larry adjusted the camera that's mounted at the top of the box.
OOPS!
Where did the egg go?
With a puzzled look, Larry said…There’s no egg in the box!
What???? I double checked my app to make sure I wasn’t looking at a pic from another year. Nope…everything was working correctly.
In less than 10 minutes, something happened to the egg!!!
After some head-scratching and some “Are you kidding me!” we concluded that an invasive English sparrow had swooped in and snatched the egg.
English sparrows are not only invasive but also aggressive, and they have been known to kill bluebirds, their hatchlings, and eggs. They will do anything to take over the nest box.
We try to scare the sparrows when we see them, but we do not offer 24-hour BBBox security.
After some research, I learned that we had to install a Sparrow SpooKer immediately if we wanted to keep any additional eggs safe. So Larry cobbled together this:
I had mylar bag filler for gift bags that Larry glued to a strip of foil. We hung it from a bar about the bluebird box.
The shiny streamers are supposed to keep the sparrows away, and so far they have. So far, Mama has laid 3 more eggs. Broods usually have 4 to 5 eggs; however, Mama bluebird (in her mind) has already laid 4 eggs.
Mother Nature never fails to intrigue, teach, and surprise us!
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