Our morning of mourning

In memory of a little 5…

After watching the circle of life last night in the field while a doe spent nearly an hour licking and nudging her new born fawn towards it’s new life… this morning we encountered the other side of natures harshness – our nest of 5 baby Eastern Bluebirds was suddenly silent – but the babies never fledged.
A few days ago Kelli remarked that she had not seen the female Bluebird around – and wondered what she might be up to. The again more recently she expressed concern that it appeared that only the male Bluebird was active in the dawn to dusk feeding ritual of the nestlings.
Then yesterday when I was checking on the emergence of the potatoes – I thought the box seemed quieter – but didn’t think twice about it.
This morning we saw a male House Sparrow expressing significant interest in the box – so I went out to shoe him off and check on out brood…
There’s nothing in my necropsy to suggest they were pecked to death like a House Sparrow will do – instead it appears that several of the little ones died several days ago… as they were matted down and covered in feces… and the larger baby bluebirds died in the last 48 hours – but none bare the telltale signs of sparrow pecking.
Likely the female was killed in some manner – and the work load of both cleaning and providing food was too overwhelming for the male – and the nest simply didn’t flourish.
It’s really unfortunate and depressing to have known – based on the feather ring around the babies eyes that they were just a few days from leaving the nest box – and the loss of the female came at the worst possible time.
So it’s here we commemorate those 5 little birds – and their valiant struggle towards life that came up short. But – the boxes are clean now – and hopefully the father will stop bringing food to the empty cavity and will begin anew the circle of life – singing out to attract a new mate.