As a part of the apparently endless ‘Honey Do’ list, Sabrina recently asked me to clean out the dozen or so Bluebird nesting houses which surround our property. It was mid-summer; none of the houses had residents, but would soon have.
I took note that most of the houses were bedded inside with soft vegetation; often that of the grass I had cut when I mowed our yard. Whereas one end of the blades were rounded, the other was cut off at a sharp angle; definitely not something randomly found in nature.
In two of the houses, however, I found bedding made of narrow gauged sticks or branches, all of the same species of wood [don’t ask.] Sabrina tells me they are likely sparrows.
In all but one, I found what I suspected: vacancy. So I brushed out the grass – and the parasites and microbes which might imperil the next clutch.
But I did find one where an unrecorded, unnoted tragedy had taken place. I found the usual bedding, but upon that soft layering, I found two broken eggs; Bluebird eggs. These babies had never had a chance, being destroyed while in their shells.
I cleared the box out and realized my hand was covered with small glutinous ants. Irrespective of that annoyance, I finished my task, then stood back to figure out this felony.
Unlike all the other boxes, vines had grown up about this one, and the ants had used the vines as an access, a point of invasion, not unlike wooden ladders had been thrown up against a besieged fortress in earlier times.
The parents’ bodies were not there, so I presumed that finding their home invaded by such a hoard, took wing, leaving their eggs behind. The ants quickly breached the fragile protection of the shells, and devoured the young.
I stripped the vines away in what I hope will bring more protection to the next mating. Also, as I now make my rounds of our property, I pay especial attention to the nesting houses, and clip the vines wherever I find them. There are asperities enough in nature, life there already unfair enough, so whatever I can do, I do.
Look for Lucky’s books locally and on-line: I Swear By Apollo; The Oath of Hippocrates; The Cotillian; A Journey Long Delayed; Campfire Tales; Sabonics; More Campfire Tales; Growing Up In Stephentown; Animal Archives; The Story Teller.
SEE SABRINA’S WILDLIFE WEBSITE: FACEBOOK.COM/SWVA WILDLIFE