Tree Swallows

Tree swallows are very common around Copper Dollar Cove and are sometimes mistaken for bluebirds. They are sparrow sized birds with blue upperparts but have clear white underparts. They like to live along lake shores, flooded meadows, marshes and streams. They like to move into the bluebird houses especially around the sewerage ponds by Copper Penny Lake. That is another reason why the bluebird trail needs to be checked at least once a week to remove unwanted nests before eggs are laid. The tree swallows nest is very similar to a bluebirds nest but it also contains feathers. Their eggs are also white instead of blue. We let a swallow family nest in one of our boxes in our backyard and we were able to watch them from the building of the nest to the four fledgelings that took off last week.

Sweet Success

In late March of this year, we put out a trail of bluebird houses starting on Copper Penny Lake and extending onto Copper Dollar Lake. The boxes have been monitored each and every week with detailed records being recorded that will be furnished to "Bluebirds Across Nebraska" at the end of the season. A number of boxes contained bluebird eggs earlier in the year but for some reason, all the eggs disappeared. Finally, there was a box containing five eggs that all hatched and although there were some difficulties, all the birds survived and fledged in a little less than three weeks. There is still time for bluebirds to nest again so hopefully I will have more good news in future posts.