Finally made up his mind.

The Bluebirds came back two weeks ago.  I could hear them chirping before I saw them.  I should say “him” because I mostly see the male chirping.  Since they came back in the neighborhood, they’ve been looking at every birdhouse in our garden. At one point they were chased away by the Tree Swallow when they took a shot at checking out the Swallow house.  Bad decision.  Anyway, I thought they would use the same house as last year.  We’ve been keeping that particular house free of House Sparrows.

But, after two weeks of indecision, he settled on the house outside Bill’s office.   He probably liked the teepee I put up for the Moonflowers; just 3 rods, tripod shaped and tied at the top.  I’ve seen him perch on top of the teepee, every time he comes out of his house, singing, and occasionally preening.  Well, I hope she likes his choice too since he already brought nesting material in.  What we need to do now is to make sure that the House Sparrow doesn’t chase them out.  We have Gray Catbirds nesting in the Forsythia a few feet away and they seem fine having the Bluebirds as neighbors.  They’ve landed on the roof a couple of times and looked down at the opening, maybe they just want to borrow some interior design tips. Once a catbird was on the roof when the male Bluebird came back with nest material and chased the catbird off.

I don’t know if they are the same family as last year or not.  I only hope that they are successful in raising their brood as last year’s family was; they had three chicks.  There just aren’t enough bluebirds in the world.