Yes, for the first time in 8 summers, the bluebird house has a pair of blues in it, and they appear to be nesting! This is exciting stuff for the birdwatchers in our house (including the cats). About two weeks ago we noticed a pair of blues hangin' around the house, and soon it appeared they were nesting. Of course, as with every year, a raccoon disturbed the nest and we thought it was all over...
Jazzman was depressed, he loves the blues, and we feared we'd go another year without the joy of watching a family develop. But...not to be dissuaded, the blues came back, and started nesting again! Jazzman was on top of the world! Blues are back! Yippeee! (O.K. he would never say yippee, I just had to add that).
Then came the phone call, after school on my last day. "Nerdy Mimi, if the blues are nesting and we are to protect them from predators, I need you go pick up some things for me on your way home." Me, "Well, I'm at a country club having a glass of wine with my friends, if I leave at 6:00, will that be soon enough?" Jazzman, "You know, we have to fix this before dark, so there is no danger of the raccoon getting at the nest again, or I'm pretty sure we won't get another chance." Me, "O.K. I'm leaving now, I'll call you when I'm at the store to find out what you need."
And, off I went to purchase ducting, connectors, and sheet metal. Yeah, so we could wrap it around the post, spray it with lithium grease (won't dissolve in the rain or heat) and make sure no predator could get up that post.
Home with supplies, putting things together, getting the space aged looking post all ready for the blues to come home to roost. Jazzman was happy, I was happy, and the blues were happy! It's a win-win for sure.
Then, after a couple of weeks of relative ease, the raccoon decided to make an attempt at the blues' nest. In the morning, Jazzman noticed this, and sent me off to get more lithium grease spray. The raccoon left behind some telltale footprints, but luckily did not make it to the top. Jazzman got out the spray and liberally coated it again, and so far it seems to be working.
But really, that's just the beginning, because now that the blues are in, Jazzman is "on it." He has his binoculars at the ready, checks out the house repeatedly, worries about other birds being too close, and reads all sorts of things on the internet that we should do to make them more comfortable. Just yesterday he spotted a "predator" (a cat under the lilac bush) and I had to run out and chase him off, so the mamma blue would come back home. Seriously, this is intense business!
This intensity about things that are vulnerable, is one of the things I really love about Jazzman. He would never hurt a fly, if he could get it outside before he had to kill it because it was driving him crazy. He checks on those blues a million times a day, shares stories with me about his observations, and when he's at work, it's my job to do a couple of checks each day to let him know the status of the blues. If I don't then he worries that something happened to them.
Yesterday, we put out some meal worms (Gordon and blues have the same diet, go figure) and we didn't know if the birds were going to eat them. Jazzman suggested setting up a "worm cam" so we could watch and see what happened. And you know what, right away I got to thinking about how I could make that happen! Seriously, Jazzman and his blues have me entertained and enlightened..who could ask for anything more?
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