It may be a bit early for bluebirds to start nesting but it’s not too early to get out and clean their nest boxes, and that’s just what I did first thing Saturday morning here at the Museum. All of our 6 nest boxes have been brushed and scraped of any left over debris from last season and any other accumulated dust, debris or insect or spider larvae/pupae.

I went ahead and installed a predator guard on one of the nest box poles. We haven’t had much of a problem with predators but there have been a few mysterious cases of missing young from one or two of the boxes over the years. To be safe, I’m going to look into getting guards for the rest of the boxes as well.

If you remember, we had a good year last spring and summer. The season ran from March 19 to July 9 when I made the first and final inspections, respectively, of the nest boxes.

To refresh your memory, here’s last year’s totals.

The totals for 2013:

Eastern Bluebirds Fledged – 20

Carolina Chickadees Fledged – 13

Recently, I’ve noticed a few of our chickadees inspecting potential nest sites but so far haven’t seen any bluebirds peeking into the boxes. But, whenever the mood hits them, there’ll be no need to hesitate bringing in nest material to their freshly cleaned homes, they are ready for occupancy!