Mrs Miner and I are some of the strange folks that love feeding and watching birds. We’re not quite birders but do very much enjoy attracting unusual birds to our yard.
We are lucky to live out in a heavily wooded area that has a sizable bird population. The woodpeckers are particularly enjoyable and regularly see both Pileated and Flicker species.
We also have several nesting boxes on the property and focus mostly on Eastern Bluebirds - they’re beautiful and my wife and I both love them. We had one clutch of eggs laid in March but a racoon got ahold of them...
I apologize for the mehness of the pictures, we use a fiber scope that attaches to my phone and the picture quality isn’t great but allows us to check on the birds and capture their progress.
Just over 3 weeks ago we spotted a new batch of bluebird eggs in one box
As a bonus we also had nuthatch eggs in another box
The nuthatches laid an impressive and terrifying 8 eggs in total!
On Friday the bluebirds hatched!
This pic is from yesterday though as they finally start to look like birds instead of lifeless hunks of pink.
Saturday the nuthatches hatched!
They still very much look like lifeless hunks of bird. That is a lot of baby bird in one box - I do no see any way they’ll all survive. Nature is harsh...
Once the birds hatch we hang out a few extra suet cakes and seed feeders to make the parents not have to spend as much of their time hunting for food to give them as much chance as they can. Over the years about 3/4 of the eggs laid have hatched and birds fledged with snakes and racoons accounting for those that didn’t.