Eastern Bluebird

In spring of 2002, we finally had a pair of Bluebirds show up sporadically. We are pretty sure they were not staying in the box we have up for several years now, but we could never discern for sure where they were coming from. We tried putting out some mealworms, which they did eventually find, but they never stayed there for long: the Catbird and Carolina Wren discovered them and went nuts! A Robin even jumped up on the table where we had placed them and ate his fill.

We had to move our Bluebird box from where it was to high on one side of the house. We had heard a pecking on the house periodically that was not a Woodpecker drumming, and finally caught a Brownheaded Nuthatch in the act. He had succeeded in opening a small hole in a patch in the siding, so we covered it up with the box, to encourage him to nest there instead of our attic. It doesn't appear that he did, so we imagine that was one upset Nuthatch!