Nest Check, June 7

My yard is a veritable egg factory these days, producing all kinds of cavity nesting birds. During my nest checks today, here is what I found:

6 Eastern Bluebird babies, 4 days old.

10 Purple Martin nests, with anywhere from 2 to 6 eggs per nest, total 44 eggs from 10 pairs of birds. I have one Lonely Guy bachelor, who has lovingly decorated his gourd with green leaves, still hoping to attract a girl. Sorry, Lonely Guy. I think it is too late for you this year.

And these Tree Swallow young - 15 days old and close to fledging. As I approached their gourd, one of them perched right on the edge of the entry hole and looked like he was about to leap.

"Whoa, there, little guy! You aren't big enough to be on your own yet."

I backed off and had to content myself with watching them through my spotting scope. Monitoring a nest box when the young are close to fledging can cause them to jump prematurely. Once they leave the nest, it is practically impossible to get them to stay, so I never open bluebird boxes after the young are 12 days old. I thought I had time for one more open-box nest check on these Tree Swallows . Guess not. The nestling phase for Tree Swallows ranges between 16 to 24 days,with 20 days being the average. In checking my old records, I find that in the last 3 years, my Tree Swallow babies have fledged at 18 days, so they should fledge this weekend.

Here's what they looked like just 4 days ago:

This is always such an exciting time of the year!