Eastern Bluebirds...Success/Disasters and Things I learned too late

Hello. I'm Pam and new to the site.
I moved to the Denton, Texas area about a year ago, and realized around March of this year that my location was great for Bluebirds, as I back up to a wooded/tree area. I've never been a bluebird landlord before, but I ran out and quickly put up my first nesting box. A couple moved in within days. Two males actually fought over the box, so I bought a second box and put it up. (nothing nested in that one) It wasn't long before the female had laid 5 eggs. I didn't check them, even though I had done a lot of reading by then and knew that I probably should. Nevertheless, about 14 days after she started sitting on the eggs, 5 beautiful bluebird nestlings hatched. This I did check, to make sure no cow birds had slipped in, since I had watched a pair hanging around. Just about the time the nestlings opened their eyes, the male bluebird disappeared. There are hawks in the area too, so I don't know what happened to him, but he never came back. The female continued on feeding the 5 babies. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up, but she was fierce! A couple of days before the nestlings were ready to fledge, she showed up with a new male in tow. He did not really help out with the babies but did stand guard at all the points the previous male had. On fledging day, I'm not sure what happened. To my horror, I saw a crow swoop down into my yard and fly off with one of the fledglings. Until that moment I didn't know crows ate nestlings. I had been seeing them gathering in the trees nearby. I was so sad. Now I use clapper things to try to scare them off. Of the 5 fledglings, I'm pretty sure 3 survived, as I found 1 in my backyard, 1 in the backyard of the neighbor to the South and 1 in the backyard of the neighbor to the North. I'm not sure about baby #4.
Several weeks went by and then there was a new pair of bluebirds. I couldn't tell if it was the same female with the new mate, or an entirely new pair. When I checked the nest, she had already built a new nest over the old nest, and the next day laid her first egg. Yeah!! She continued to lay 4 more eggs before starting to incubate them. I checked them after they hatched and took a photo showing 4 nestlings. I wasn't sure at that time if one was just laying where I couldn't see it, or if I only had 4. One week before they were due to fledge, disaster struck. I noticed that the birds in my backyard were all astir. Not just the male and female bluebird, but a family of house finches as well. I went out to check and when I checked the box, I found only 1 nestling in the box. The parents were going back and forth to the box, and they would look inside, but not make any attempt to feed the baby. I thought that must mean that the baby was hurt and was going to die. I cleaned up the nest, (threw out the 5th egg that never hatched) and put the nest back into the box. Then, because the birds were so stirred up, I began to search my garden to see if something had happened to make the other birds fledge too soon. What I found was a (corn?) snake. It was clear that he had eaten the other 3 babies. We got a hoe and knocked around the area until he slithered off, but the parents still wouldn't go inside the house. I read much later that they won't go inside if the threat is still in the area. He was just waiting around until night so he could get the last baby. Three days later I figured out that I could have taken that nest and placed it into an identical box that was in a different location and the parents would have called to it and found him. I feel so awful that I failed them of being a good caretaker.
I took that nesting box down and put the other unused box up in a safer location. Added tacks at the top of the pole, using duct tape stuck to the pole with the tacks sticking out from the inside. I read something about stretching a slinky up the pole but haven't figured exactly how that works. I really need step by step instructions on that one. I'd hate to find out too late that it didn't work.
I'm just waiting to see if I get a pair of bluebirds back to try the area again. I've read that they will sometimes raise as many as 3 clutches.
And I'm wondering if I can reuse that nesting box after the snake having been in there. I used bleach and water to clean it up and then sprayed it off with the hose and allowed it to dry out. Still, I put up the unused house because I wasn't sure if they would know.
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. Pam

Apparently I would not have been allowed to move the nest after all. Just another thing I didn’t know and something that I’ll have to get over.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2024 9:28 PM