one woman's cure for the empty-nester blues
by MoJo
What better way to ring in the New Year than to feature the sounds of the "Bluebird of Happiness"?
Listen in as Bluebird nestlings vie for the parent to "Choose me! Choose me!" One listen and you will clearly understand why, when nestlings are about 7 days old, bird parents choose to spend their nights outside of the house.
This is not a test. Lucky for us, there is a pause button on this audio!
by MoJo
I don't know about you, but after the holidays I'm ready to get the house back to normal -- do some housekeeping. I need to grab hold of this rare impulse when it strikes!
In this post, I share some insight into another Nesting Challenge: Housekeeping. It is pretty impressive to witness the details of our Creator's design!
Let's begin with a picture of an empty Eastern Bluebird nest. Looking at it, your first impression may be that this is a new nest awaiting a first egg. In fact, this nest was occupied by four bluebird nestlings for 17 days. Amazing how clean it is. We all know birds poop ALL the time — so how can this be?
Bluebird (and other) nestlings excrete their poop in sacks. The sacks are removed by the parents (yep, mom AND dad) and placed in a location far from the nest. Insects are not drawn into the nest, and predators are not led to the nest, by the presence of piled-up droppings. Like I said: Creation is amazing!!
In the photo, below, a parent bluebird is shown removing a poop sack from an active nest. Go Dad!!
