Monday, May 11, 2020

you know what's good?

having a bunny, that's what's good. for us, at least.

i think she's happy to have us around a lot, too. especially ander. he can pretty much do anything to her through the bars of her enclosure - give her cheek rubs, hold her ears and give a gentle tug, pet her fur backwards. mostly she just stays there and soaks up the attention as he tells her what a good and wonderful bunny she is. she sometimes grooms him, which i have told him is a sign that she accepts him as a bunny. she grooms artemis on occasion, too, and tolerates him picking her up and snuggling with her on the loveseat. she pays attention to me when i come to her in the morning with a banana or a slice of apple and a yogurt drop and that's when i get to pet her.

her presence in the family room where much of our family activity takes place always gives us something to talk about. we make sure to take note and alert everyone in the house anything that the bunny is doing at any given moment - lying down, or stretching, or grooming, or sleeping, or eating, or drinking from her water bottle, or twitching her nose, or just generally existing. she is a constant furry friend, and we love her sooooo much.














Saturday, May 9, 2020

the birds are back!

or maybe they are a new nesting pair. doesn't really matter to me, i'm just happy that bluebirds chose our yard again to raise a brood (maybe two, if we are lucky). i was a little worried that we'd be passed up because of the introduction of a predator guard on the opening, along with a baffle, to prevent a repeat of last year's second brood suddenly . . . disappearing. but i caught sight of the female flapping around a number of times and then finally smooshing herself inside, so i anticipated nest building. it was amusing to watch the bird alight upon the top of the house with a beakful of pine needles, try to fit, fail to do so, drop some of the needles, and stuff the rest in by sheer force of will. this went on for days.

the first time i peeked inside, there were already two eggs. since they tend to lay one per day, that puts the first egg laid on april 7th.




mama bluebird is none too pleased with being disturbed! i didn't try to peek in again until the next day.

April 11

April 25th. probably hatched today or yesterday, consistent with 12-14 day incubation period from last egg laid. calling this day 1.

April 29th. day 4

May 1, day 6

May 4th, day 9


May 6th, day 11

May 7th, day 12
i'm not taking any chances to possibly cause premature fledging by opening up the nest box any more. i'm just watching the parents continue to bring food to the babies.

it's difficult to tell for sure, but i think only four of the eggs hatched. i found a bunch of ants swarming in the nest box around day nine, potentially seeking the unhatched egg? i rubbed a generous amount of crisco on the nest box mounting pole and that seemed to deter more from coming in. i think the parent bluebirds ate the rest of the ants that were trying to escape.