From this window - 5/7/12...

The bluebirds have been busy all morning creating a nest.  The female started it with pine straw.  She's almost finished because she's using soft dried grasses now.  The male stops by the nest box every few minutes with something yummy to eat and to check her progress.  If you look closely at picture 4, you can see the big fat grub in his mouth.  I have never seen mate feeding behavior with bluebirds before although I see it frequently in cardinals.

 The male in all his glory.

 The female with a mouthful of nesting material.

 Another load of nesting material.

A juicy fat worm for the nest maker.

These pictures were all taken using my mono pod from my craft room open window.  I can sit at my computer and take these pictures.  I watched the male chase off a female Downy Woodpecker who had checked out the box several times this week and made the mistake of coming back today.  He also chased off the wren who has checked out the box with his female.  The wren is now building a nest in the box mounted on the door frame of the gazebo.  House sparrows are trying to build a nest on the ledge in the gazebo now that the screen is down.  I'm too short to clean it out so it will have to wait until hubs comes home tomorrow.  He says that Southern Illinois is suffering a drought and we're deluged with rain; all the birds he would be taking pictures of down there are up here enjoying the water.  I will be sharing more pictures in the future.