Susan Writes

Most people purchase a home security camera to monitor their front and back doors.  A small wireless camera that takes video clips and photos is perfect to see visitors, animals and people, who are at your doorstep.  A phone app sends a picture, can also capture audio, and even allows you to speak to visitors. 

            But my friend doesn’t use this small camera to monitor doors. She watches what goes on inside her bluebird box.  When she recently showed me videos of Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird building a nest, I wanted a bluebird box in my yard.  This is one time that it was as easy said as done.

            Another friend, a member of the Cookeville Bluebird Club, put me in touch with the Don Hazel who builds and installs bluebird boxes and now I have one.  Don, president of Tennessee Bluebird Society, became interested in providing homes for bluebirds because during past decades the bluebird population decreased about 90%.  Bluebirds nest inside a cavity, such as old woodpecker holes or crevices in a building, but since there are fewer natural nesting places, they accept bluebird boxes.

            Many people have had bluebird boxes for years, and the formation of a local bluebird club has increased interest during the last year.  The club installed ten boxes at Cane Creek Park and four at Dogwood Park, and the club receives monitoring reports from a total of 53 boxes in the Cookeville areas. To join the club or learn more about bluebirds, email cookevillebluebirds@gmail.com and you might want to check out the Tennessee Bluebird Society Facebook group.

            I was excited when I saw a bird dart in and out of the small round opening on the front of my bird box, although it was a chickadee not a bluebird.  For two days, Mr. and Mrs. Chickadee carried blades of dry grass and bits of moss and then they were gone.  The bird box can be opened on the side to monitor the birds’ activities and to clean out the box so after ten days I removed the grass and moss. That day a male bluebird sat on top of the box.  He cocked his head from side-to-side, flew away, and returned carrying pine needles inside the box.  By the end of the day, he’d covered the bottom of the box and Mrs. Bluebird had flitted around outside the box.

            Success!  I expected to show off a bluebird nest, eggs, and chicks to my Grands and anyone who would quietly look inside the box. But the nest foundation has been abandoned. Sometimes Mr. Bluebird begins a nest, but Mrs. Bluebird wants a different home.  However, my friend who takes bluebird videos has assured me that Mrs. Bluebird can be fickle and they might return to my bird box.  

            I continue to monitor my bluebird box in hope that Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird will return and build a nest.  Maybe I should put out a welcome mat and a plate of mealworms mixed with cornmeal.  I’m trying to be patient.

Filed under: Everyday Life |