First Few Days of Freedom

Sammy has been free for 5 days now and is still doing wonderfully!  He seems to act just like any other fledgling Eastern Bluebird...except for the fact that he likes to land on us and have "cuddle-time".

Sammy in his "favourite" maple tree

He's been coming in for a free breakfast of mealworms and other bugs around 7:45am, flying out of a tree pretty much as soon as he sees me on the lawn.  Yesterday morning, he was calling from his tree perch when I came outside and within seconds, he was on the platform feeder in full begging mode.

We had a flock of Common Grackles come in to the front yard trees this morning which sent Sammy flying off right away.  He's also showing some signs of being territorial over the yard. He chased off a White-breasted Nuthatch yesterday from the seed feeders into the woods, the two of them zig-zagging among the trees.  And today, it was a Black-capped Chickadee's turn to be evicted from the yard by Sammy.  Both birds are competitors for cavity nesting sights for Eastern Bluebirds, and maybe somehow Sammy knows this and is trying to keep them out of his territory.  He seems to have favourite perching spots: one is a fairly big dead limb on the big maple tree overlooking the grass area by the pond, the second one is a fairly bare branch on a beech tree on the front lawn.

Sammy sitting quietly on a dead maple limb

He caught a big wolf spider that was hanging down from a maple branch and took it to a driftwood post in the garden where he proceeded to bash it until he was satisfied it was ready to eat.  We've also observed him catch and eat small brown ants on the ground, a couple small worms and some unknown bugs while in the air, so he is providing for himself as well as being supplemented by us with small green caterpillars, grasshoppers, moths and of course, his beloved mealworms.

This afternoon, Sammy landed on my shoulder and sat there contentedly, so I took him for a walk around the backyard to show him the perching posts Frank had put up for him to hunt from.  Eastern Bluebirds like to hunt from elevated perches like hydro lines, fence posts and bare tree branches. So just like the ropes Frank hung in the front yard to imitate hydro lines, these perching posts were to provide him with more spots to hunt from.  He flew onto one of the perching posts and sat there for about 10 minutes while I worked in the vegetable gardens nearby.  He flew down to the garden and ate a bug while I was there, then back onto my shoulder, so I took him over to the dogwood shrubs where there are tons of big black ants and small brown ones and showed them to him.  He hopped right down and had himself a little feast, then flew off into the edge of the woods.

Preening on one of his favourite branches

Later this afternoon, we saw him perched on the deck railing in a light drizzle, wing quivering and calling softly.  He was facing the door, which makes me think he knows this is one of the places we come out from.  I took him out some mealworms and he ate 9 of them with gusto before flying off again.  In the early evening, he landed on Frank on the deck, making himself quite comfortable in the hood of his sweatshirt..we thought he was going to go to sleep as he stayed in the hood for about 10 minutes, just resting quietly.  All of these interactions are initiated by Sammy, with a little bit of us calling to him sometimes.  He chooses to come to us and seems to enjoy being close.  For us, this has been a truly wondrous experience - having this beautiful little bird, who is completely in charge of his own life now, trust us and want to be with us.

If you look closely, you can see the vivid blue feathers just starting to show on his shoulders, as well as the rusty breast feathers starting to develop. 

Sammy having some quiet time in Frank's hood

Just before dark, Sammy did some ground hunting on the gravel driveway - most likely little ants - for about 15 minutes, before he flew up into the beech tree along the driveway for a few seconds, then onto the eaves of the garage where he tucked himself in against the house.  I think he was trying to stay dry as it was drizzling out again, and this was a sheltered, fairly safe place for him.  When I went outside at 10pm, in full darkness, he was still perching there quietly, nice and dry, so I think this is where he is going to spend the night.

Today makes Sammy 49-50 days - still going strong in the wild.