Baby bluebirds swelter through July

We are back in town now, having spent a very hot three weeks in Texas, and have moved into an apartment while we wait for the repair work to be completed on our home. Shortly before we had left on our trip, John and I noticed that the bluebirds had begun a second nesting attempt in the box out in our vegetable garden. If it is the same pair, they had already fledged the first brood around the middle of May.

As we sweltered in the heat of mid-July, I wondered how the birds were doing, and the bluebird nest was one of the first things I checked on after we got back into town. In extremely hot weather, sometimes the babies simply can’t endure the temperature inside the enclosed space. However, we apparently had a bunch of hardy youngsters and some hard-working adults in our garden because the second brood left the nest last week.

Occasionally, if conditions are suitable, bluebirds will attempt a third nesting. In 1991, the year our daughter left home for college, we had a very energetic pair in our backyard that successfully brought off a clutch in early September. I remember that so well because after the young had left the nest, the female would sometimes come back and peer into the empty box. It reminded me of myself, wandering into Jennifer’s room, as if to capture some memory of her being there.

If you are one of the many people who have an interest in bluebirds, you may want to consider joining the North American Bluebird Society. This group publishes a very informative quarterly journal that not only provides information on some of the problems encountered by "bluebird landlords," but also features results of the latest research on these beautiful birds.

The most recent issue had an article on protecting nestlings from an insect, the buffalo gnat. Fortunately, we do not have to contend with this problem since the range of this pest does not extend into Virginia, but I was fascinated with the solution that the folks in Arkansas discovered. They found that the application of vanilla extract around the entrance hole reduced the death rate due to the buffalo gnat from 175 bluebird babies in 2009 to five deaths in 2010.

The North American Bluebird Society will hold its annual meeting this year in Jackson, Tenn., from Sept. 14-18 and the lineup of speakers looks really interesting. The topics range from landscaping for naturalists to a presentation on the famed ivory-billed woodpecker. For more information about either the upcoming conference or a membership application, contact wwwnabluebirdsociety.org

News and notes

Ann Barrett, of Forest, contacted me about a family of great horned owls that had been seen near her home. Earlier in the summer, both the adults and young were often spotted but, at this point, only one juvenile is still lingering nearby. Like many birds of prey, the adults provide months of support after the young leave the nest.