Life in the Wild

Sammy seems to be adjusting well and enjoying life in the wild the last couple days.  He's been showing up around 7 in the mornings and having his breakfast of mealworms. Yesterday, he gaped for me to feed him, just like he would have begged his bluebird parents for 3-4 weeks after fledgling.

Sitting on the eaves

Doing some preening

Tenley, my 3 year old grand-daughter is here for a few days, and when she came outside for the first time yesterday morning, Sammy was perched on a rope and flew right down to her, sitting comfortably on her shoulder and chest for quite awhile.  It's been over two weeks since he has seen Tenley, but I'm positive he remembers her.  She was so thrilled that he came to her all on his own and had a cuddle with her.  She simply adores him and I truly believe this love is reciprocated by Sammy.

Late this morning, Frank saw Sammy sitting on our ATV in the parking area, so he took him over some mealworms.  He was gobbled down about 15 mealworms and a spider, he must have been very hungry.  It's got to be hard work learning to locate and catch food, and unfortunately he doesn't have his parents to watch and learn from.  After filling his belly, he hopped onto Frank's finger, so he walked around the house throughout the yard with Sammy.  He said he was showing him around, lol. When they reached the feeding platform, he had to nudge Sammy off his finger onto the platform, he didn't want to leave Frank.  I think he's looking for companionship, which he would have had from his bluebird siblings if they had survived.

Baths are still enjoyed by him, he gave himself a good soaking both days, then flew into one of the beeches on our lawn to preen his feathers just so.  I've got my regular bird bath placed close to the feeding platform where his shallow bath from his aviary is, I'm hoping he will discover it and start using it instead.

He seems to really like the 3 ropes Frank strung up between our trees and the porch post and uses them as hunting perches often.  I'm hoping to get some pictures of this in the next few days.  He also has been up on the eaves of the house, catching bugs sometimes, but mostly just sitting snug against the house, almost like he's trying to hide.

Looking for bugs

Sammy hangs out in this corner often

Sammy doesn't seem to like our white-breasted nuthatches very much, he's chased them quite a few times off the seed feeders and over the pond into the edge of the woods.  So far, these are the only birds we've seen him chase.  I wonder if he instinctively knows they are a competitor for available nesting cavities for Eastern Bluebirds?  Watching him pursue them is fascinating, they both weave so quickly between the trees.  The nuthatches zigzag at a very fast pace and Sammy stays right behind them, dead on course like a guided missile.  We're amazed Sammy or the nuthatches haven't crashed headfirst into a tree!

Late this evening, Sammy came down for a meal and ate another 15 or so mealworms, 2 black beetles and a big black ant that I had caught for him earlier in the day.  Quite a big meal for this little bird, although we have seen him catch his own food, maybe it hasn't been quite enough for him.  After his meal, he did about half an hour of ground hunting on our stone laneway, catching and eating several small brown ants.  Eastern Bluebirds hunt several different ways including:  

- diving to the ground from a perch to catch their prey, then returning to the perch with it

- ground feeding, like American Robins, although they tend to hop along the ground rather than run like robins, cocking their heads to find their prey

- aerial hunting, which involves swooping off a perch to grab prey in mid-air, often hovering over it

- gleaning insects from leaves, branches and trunks of trees.

Sammy settled for the night at 8:50pm, in the beech tree beside the laneway again. He perched on the same branch in the same spot as the previous couple nights, concealed under a canopy of protective leaves.

Today, Sammy is 47-48 days old and surviving.