Participant Photo: Tree Swallow

Ever since I moved to Tennessee and put up nesting boxes for the Eastern Bluebirds, there has been a yearly sequence in the birds that use those boxes. In the Spring the Bluebirds do take advantage of the nesting boxes, but after their hatchlings fledge, and before I have a chance to clean out the nesting boxes, the newly arriving Tree Swallows take over the boxes, build their nests on top of those left by the Bluebirds, then lay and hatch their broods. After the Tree Swallow hatchlings fledge, then the House Wrens come, take over the same boxes and build their nests right atop those left by the previous birds—often I see their nest twigs right to the very top of the entry holes of the boxes…I don’t know how the birds can get in and out of the nesting boxes, but they do. This nesting sequence has been going on for the 20 years I have been here.