Eastern Bluebird
The weather is still too cold for spring. Night time temperature a little bit above the freezing point most nights. Making matters worse, we had an ice storm four days ago. The birds, on the other hand, seem to know better since they have started to shed their winter down. This is the time of year I see a lot of fine feathers blowing in the garden or floating in the birdbaths. The male American Goldfinches have almost completely turned bright yellow by now, their summer color.
Most of our birds have just started to claim territory and are checking available nest boxes. Some have already paired up with mates. The Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), on the other hand, has already laid eggs. I thought they had only built their nest since it’s still very cold. I always monitor our nest boxes in the garden to make sure that there are no House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) nesting there. Once I saw the female Bluebird leave the nest box, I had to take a peek.
A surprise!
They never left us this past winter anyway. I think they probably felt comfortable here with food, water and roosting box to take shelter in during winter. And, plenty of food in spring and summer.
I hope they will have two broods this year since they’ve started the first one early. There really is no such thing as too many Bluebirds.
Petals and Wings 
Wonderful! Fingers crossed 🙂
Just need to keep an eye on the House Sparrows.
Aren’t those eggs just lovely? Of course the parents are too.
Their songs are lovely as well.
Love these photos! We have had some blue eggs hatching, but from a different bird: the blackbird. Right out our front door where we can’t escape the expectant looks and little tweets that say ‘Feed us!”
To have the birds nesting that close is really lovely. Much easier to observe them.
Yes, but there are definite drawbacks. Like having to witness the destruction of the nest, which happened Saturday. We didn’t actually see it as it happened, but were around for the aftermath. The poor parents don’t quite know what to do with themselves…
So cute :-). Great photos!
Thank you. I hardly wait to see their kids learn to fly.