When we first bought our place we decided we wanted bluebird houses...and lots of them. Andy got busy and made 20. The first spring we put them up all around our 50 acres. We love birds, but we are not big fans of bird feeders. Putting up an avian cafeteria in my yard is not my idea of fun. Watching the neighborhood cat grab an innocent wren off our feeder one winter day put an end to my bird watching from my breakfast table. And out here, our house is sided with pine. Add free food to a chance to nibble on wood.. an open invitation to every squirrel in the neighborhood to come and fill their stomachs..and sharpen their teeth.
Yes, 20 houses would be enough we thought. With the help of a neighbor boy we put them up in a day. I don't know if we were successful or not that first year. We were too busy building and digging and working on our new house. I would see a few bluebirds flitting around but didn't pay much attention to where they were or where they were calling home.
One mistake we made was putting the birdhouses on trees on the edges of our place. We spaced them correctly so there wouldn't be any neighborhood squabbles among the pairs. But I guess the birds just weren't interested in flying into the timber's edge to make a home in a wooden box, no matter how comfy we tried to make it.
The next year we put them on posts...near where we thought they might like to live and raise a family. And found that some of the 20 had not survived the winter. So we were down to 18 or so. Up they went on the posts. We would check and see if we saw any evidence of nesting when we made the rounds. Some were used and some were left vacant.
Over time more of the houses met their demise....some fell victim to wind storms, others to errant crashes with brush hogs and wandering tractors with no back-up mirror. So now we have 12.
We have usually cleaned out the houses before nesting season. Sometimes we get to all of them..and sometimes not. But today we decided to spruce up each and every one.
As with most of our mutual jobs, Andy and I have our assigned tasks. I hold the drill, the hammer and the cleaning stick and pass them to him when he needs them. He uses the drill, the hammer and the cleaning stick and sometimes the posthole digger and the maul. You get the idea. I do the assisting and he does the heavy work. That has always worked for us.
We found a variety of things when we cleaned the houses today. Almost all of the houses had nests in them...some had old eggs from previous seasons buried under the debris....some had wasp nests festooned under the covers....and some were just about to fall apart.
My skillful husband managed to put them back together...good enough for another year.
After tromping around to each locale we were satisfied that all would be ready for the birds to move in when they took a notion.
And I for one am more than ready for bluebird season. I love to see them lined up on my power line, sitting up there in a row, turning their necks to see if they can see a bug or two flitting under them. Diving down they catch their meal and head off toward the homes we have made for them. It makes me smile to see them and know that we have done our part.
House cleaning....I do it for the birds.
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