Spring brings full house to 55 bluebird boxes

Spring brings a full house to all 55 bluebird boxes at Hammock Bay in Freeport.

This is the fourth season Joe Wyatt, naturalist at Hammock Bay, has been running a bluebird breeding program for these beautiful indigenous birds.

The success has been quite good. There were 297 fledglings in 2009 and this year Joe is hopeful to have the same success.

It takes 14 days to incubate, and 17 to fledgling after they hatch. The cold winter had a the nesting running about 2-3 weeks behind, and the bluebirds lined many of the nests with sphagnum moss for additional insulation.

One of the nests is occupied with nine Carolina chickadee chicks which is quite unusual.

“Typically, a chickadee will only lay about 4-5 eggs,” Joe said. It looks like one pair of chickadees doubled up this year!