I checked the nest yesterday expecting to find warm eggs and instead found 4 warm bodies and 1 warm egg. The egg was cracked and while I would have loved to watch the hatch, I didn't want to disrupt things with the birds too much. They were only a day or two old with no feathers and huge, gaping beaks. The sight of four tiny birds with their necks straining upward to get feed is really quite a sight.
I checked the nest again this morning and there was no sign of egg, so I assume that there were 5 bodies in there. They had been recently feed, so I couldn't count the beaks. I'll check them again tomorrow to see if there are indeed 5 of them in there.
We're still putting out generous amounts of mealworms for them and Mama and Papa are most happy with our arrangement. I attribute easy and plentiful food to the successful early hatching this year. Hopefully the eggshells that I added to the bluebird banquet has helped as well.
On a related note, the Tree Swallows continue to guard "their" nest box, but no building has commenced yet.
Posted by Elizabeth at April 10, 2005 08:16 AM