I stayed at home Sunday in an attempt to see the two Eastern bluebird
nestlings fledge from my nestbox. As anyone who has done this can attest,
this is a lengthy, frustrating process as the baby birds slowly work up the
courage to take the big leap of faith into the unknown. Makes you start
wishing that one would give a little push from behind to its sibling.
At about 3 p.m. the two neighborhood guinea fowl decided to perform their
bizarre courtship ritual in my yard. This consists of running as back and
forth, back and forth, one behind the other, the length of my yard and part
of my neighbor's, pausing every 10 or 15 minutes during which one (the male,
presumably) attempts to mount the other while both engage in a short flurry
of hopping and wing fluttering. A few seconds later, the chase is resumed,
taking them within a couple feet of the rear of the nestbox.
Finally, at 4:00, one of the little bluebirds emerged from the entrance
hole, clinging tenaciously to the front of the box for a few seconds before
clumsily sliding and fluttering to the ground where it hopped around under
the nestbox. I lost track of it while watching the second baby. After
about 3 or 4 minutes, it too emerged but unlike its less agile brother or
sister, flew to a nearby tree. I eventually re-located the first one under
a bush beside the neighbor's house, just standing around. The guineas who
were still at it (now more than an hour after they began) ran to within a
few feet of the bush and began copulating, or trying to. They were
immediately dive-bombed by two agitated bluebird parents. They didn't seem
to notice and quickly resumed their running about. Where did they find the
energy for all this cavorting on such a hot afternoon?
So you could say that I got to watch the beginning and the culmination of
the avian reproductive cycle at the same time.
Carole Gobert west Knox County, Tennessee
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
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Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
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