Eastern Bluebird

Kim and I made a visit to the farm today to see my mom who is in town for the weekend. It was a beautiful day and we spent a good deal of time searching for wild flowers in the Oak Savanna. Flowers we could identify were Trout Lily, Prairie Trillium, and Mayapple. Also, the plot for the 2 acre prairie planting we are doing this spring has also been marked off. As soon as the fields dry up we will disc and cultipack the ground to make a firm and clean bed for the prairie seeds.

We also enjoyed watching the Eastern Bluebird pair that has taken residence at the farm again this year. It seems they can't decide which of the four nest boxes they like the best because we found nests in two of the boxes, and they both appear to be Bluebird nests. As far as we can tell there is only one pair in the area. Eastern Bluebird nests are very clean, made mostly of fine grass and twigs. Sometimes birds will use scraps of paper and other pieces of trash to build their nest, but not Eastern Bluebirds. I suppose the first brood will come within a couple of weeks. We also saw the Red-tailed Hawk sitting on her nest. Last year she had two chicks that we watched develop throughout the summer.

Here are two photos I took today comparing the color between the male and female Eastern Bluebird.


Male Eastern Bluebird


Female Eastern Bluebird

This is a video of a preening male Eastern Bluebird I also took at the farm today.



Species Observed:
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Cardinal
Blue Jay
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
European Starling
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown Thrasher
White-breasted Nuthatch
Black-capped Chickadee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Brown Creeper
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Crow


All images and video © 2008 Derek Strom