The chick’s feathers are growing in quickly. There was a spell of a couple hours this afternoon when mom and dad were slow on food deliveries. They picked up again in the evening.

Yesterday, I was reading on the deck with the parents coming and going from the box. Mom was on the perch I planted for them in the yard, dad watching from the neighboring box on the deck. Mom made a call I’d never heard and took off, climbing nearly straight up. Dad disappeared, under the deck I think. A couple seconds later, a peregrine falcon cruised through the yard. It was relatively low, I think momma’s reaction was to climb to prevent the falcon from being able to dive at her. The falcon continued along and wasn’t seen again. The bluebirds returned to tend their chicks after a few minutes.

We’re watching eastern bluebirds in a nesting box with a camera installed inside to let us watch without disturbing them. The camera switches to black & white in low light. And, the exposure control stinks, that’s why it washes out or goes black as a bird comes or goes. We occasionally get some pixelated frames in the video, I think that is a WiFi issue. A new WiFi repeated is on the way.