The Bluebird Diaries - Chapter 7

Look at our little sleeping angel.

This is Elijah Blue, only 9 days old.

These days, Mister Blue and I spend much of our time collecting bugs and feeding babies. Every morning, our landlord delivers fresh mealworms to the deli. We watch for her and barely wait for her to turn the corner before we're filling up our beaks with juicy mealworms for our nestlings. That's why they're growing so fast - all that protein!

Here is a photo of all three babies at 9 days old.

You can see they're sprouting some wing feathers now.

Much to the photographer's chagrin, the babies all play 'possum' whenever she opens the door to the bungalow to snap a picture. But you let Mister or me land on the veranda with a bug, and those necks crane upward, beaks open, and the cheeping commences.

We're actually quite proud that our nestlings are so smart and cautious to possible intruders.

Now that they're getting bigger, Mister and I aren't always happy about daily photo sessions. Yesterday we both buzzed the photographer while she took these pictures of them at 11 days old. If you look closely, you can see Jackie Blue (at the top) peeking through one eye at the camera.

As our babies near the age of fledging (around 14-23 days), we must be careful not to let them jump out of the nest prematurely. Even though they won't be able to survive on their own, they will not return to the nest which would be fatal for them.

The last few days have been milder, but we fear the next few will be hot again.

Last week when the landlord turned on the hose mister for us, the yard man who lives in the building next door posted a sign on one of the trees near our condo:

WET T-SHIRT CONTEST
8:00

Mister Blue thought it was hilarious. He wanted to put on a wet tee-shirt and go sit on the yard man's back deck.

I was just thankful the older kids weren't around to see it, and I was saved from having to explain what it meant!

Next: Epilogue