Magnetic Attraction
BY Nancy Dulaney Rowe
Please cite this Page as:
Rowe, N. D. 1998. Magnetic Attraction. Birdscope, Volume 13, Number
1: 9.
(Documentation is in bold type. It is a record
of known events and nesting attempts in the life of one female bluebird over a four-year
period. Two other broods, not included, may also have been hers.)
June 1995
Box 3 A (site 3, box A of pair). Hatched
6/29/95. Banded 7/9/95. #1421-88593.
Just three years ago she entered our
lives,
Appearing right out of the blue.
She was raised with three siblings by parents
whose care
Ensured good health as they grew.
Fledged 7/17/95.
Self-confidence came, as it does to the young,
And they all struck out on their own.
Then remembering her birthplace she came back
again,
But she found no one there that she’d known.
April 1996
Box 3 B (site 3, box B of pair). 4/96. Box
3 B used exclusively by "her" until her last brood of 1998.
There was, it so happened, a fellow next door
Who was charmed and pursued her with zest.
So, lured by his looks and seductive love songs,
She made his abode their love nest.
4 hatched 5/20/96. 4 banded 6/1/96.
(Fledged) #1421-88594, 95, 96, 97.
Exemplary parents of four they became,
Though later they drifted apart.
But patiently waiting she found and was found
By a suitable second sweetheart.
May 1997
The next year we witnessed the same old routine,
From courtships to farewells, of sorts.
But no one was certain her partners had been
Merely one or a number of sports.
2 hatched 5/18/97. 2 banded 5/28/97.
(Fledged) #1571-37413, 19.
Though other uncertainties muddled the
facts,
Among them, which broods held her genes,
We were certain two fledglings would pass
them along
As they practiced their courtship routines.
April 1998
5th egg laid 4/5/98.
As two years a mother with five eggs now laid,
Her fecundity ought to be praised.
How many young bluebirds will she again fledge
From the site where she had been raised?
We’ll "not count her chicks before they
have
hatched,"
But we wonder, as always before,
How many more years will the baby we knew
Be the mother of how many more.
5 eggs disappeared 4/21/98.
Alas, such a question may hang in the air
And fade with the hopes we hold dear,
For suddenly gone are the five little eggs,
Though why and where to are not clear.
Nest removed 4/23/98.
Since birds may desert any nest that’s been
robbed,
We removed it, for that seems a must.
Will the female return? Will a new one appear?
We shall soon have some answers, we trust.
May 1998
1st egg laid 5/2/98.
Eleven days later our hopes are revived,
As a cradle of newly mown hay
Is woven and cupped and it already holds
A single new, azure blue egg.
Who laid it? The question’s on
everyone’s tongue.
Is "our baby" the mother-to-be?
Quite possibly yes, quite possibly no.
Said the monitor, "Let’s wait and see."
5th egg laid 5/6/98.
In just a few days the answer is YES,
With five little eggs, as before.
So, how many times will the baby we knew
Be the mother of how many more?
3 eggs did not hatch. 2 hatched 5/19/98. 2
banded 5/31/98. #1571-37434, 35.
Two embryos grew in their shells for
twelve days,
Then cracked them with vigorous pecks.
With effort those tiny, bare bluebirds emerged,
Heads wobbling on long, wrinkled necks.
June 1998
In less than a fortnight the two chicks had
fledged
And by papa were taught to survive,
While mama prepared another new nest
To cradle her third clutch of five.
2 fledged 6/6 or 6/7/98. 5th egg laid
6/17/98.
After only three days of her warming the eggs
One vanished, the others showed cracks.
The work of a rival? Not mammal or snake.
If only we knew all the facts!
Trouble 6/20/98. Clutch abandoned between
6/18 & 6/24/98.
When both of the parents had disappeared,
too,
We were stumped and could just speculate.
Were they forced to depart because of a threat?
Did one die and the other remate?
If she died we’ll not know, unless she is
found
With her band #5-93.
If she lives and is captured, the same will be true.
Again, we shall wait and we’ll see.
Box 4 B (site 4, box B of pair). Nest
started 6/24/98. 5th egg laid 6/29/98.
Unwilling to wait, we decided to see
Whether she, with her old or new mate,
Had moved across Copper Beech road to a box
With a synchronous nesting date.
July 1998
"She" (female EABL
"#5-93") identified 7/11/98!
We found her!–ensconced on a nest she had
built,
Determined and bright-eyed, but wary.
Our Grande Dame of Bluebirds, her monitor named
This bird so extraordinary.
5 hatched 7/12/98. 5 banded 7/21/98.
#1571-37442, 43, 44, 45, 46. Fledged.
Her five feathered youngsters are banded and
poised
To fly off and chirp their goodbyes,
As soon as their feathers and muscles allow
And their color resembles the sky’s.
Suppose she returns in the year ‘99,
Which site and which box will she choose?
Since Tree Swallows often control a shared site,
They’ll determine which nest box is whose.
As "hope springs eternal" and we await
spring,
The hopes we have held dear before
Will all be fulfilled when the baby we knew
Once again is the mother of more.
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