Subject: [Tweeters] New Yard Bird, Snohomish County Western Bluebird
Date: Jun 18 12:27:56 2009
From: stan Kostka lynn Schmidt - lynnandstan at earthlink.net


Hi Tweets,

We've been living here for about fifteen years, and new species on
our yard list are now very hard to come by, so I was rather excited
yesterday afternoon to add to the list. Around 5 oclock I spied a
female Western Bluebird perched on one of the several nestboxes
positioned around the yard and garden, and she was peering into the
entrance. This particular nestbox contains an active tree swallow
nest, and a tree swallow returning with food buzzed the bluebird,
which flew to a nearby garden fence post. Shortly afterward she
moved into the trees to the north. The Kunde Road clearcut that has
had breeding bluebirds for the past few years is only about a third
mile away, and the young there have recently fledged, so this
female could have been from there, investigating options for a second
brood. Overall in our local study area we've found slightly fewer
nesting attempts so far than at this time last year, but, all
clutches so far have each contained six eggs. That's never happened
before in previous years, when some clutches had as few as three eggs.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington
N48 15.37 W122 06.50