What with the snow and the bitter temperatures, we’re behind in our ready the yard for springtime chores. Although it still looks like the dreary days of winter, the bluebirds don’t seem to care. They’ve returned. We feel like hoteliers who don’t have our rooms ready for guests. Yesterday, Steve bundled up and cleaned out the bluebird houses in our meadow.
Some years, when he’s cleaned out the debris from the previous summer, mice have jumped out. This year he didn’t have to evict anyone, but he did remove the old nest so that the bluebirds could build anew.
Last year’s nest was beautiful. The bluebirds had used chicken feathers!
I recognize these feathers. They are the soft feathers that the Ladies shed when they were maturing pullets, as they grew their own adult coats. They molted them last spring, just as the bluebirds needed feathers for their nests. I wonder what the bluebirds will use this year. There are no soft feathers, but there is a lot of cozy goat fur. We’ll have to wait until next springtime to find out.
There is hope for spring after all, with the return of your bluebirds. I’m still waiting to hear, then see, the Red Wing blackbirds.
Nice looking birdhouse Steve!
I’m still waiting, too!
I love seeing old bird nests from our yard that are lined with our Beagle mix dog hair. It is great for our kids to view the resourcefulness of nature first hand
Soft and cozy nest.
I’m always torn each Spring whether or not to clean out our Bluebird houses … is it better to make them start over or have one all ready to use. Usually, I go ahead and clean them out.
Definitely clean them out. By the end of the season, the nests are filled with mites, and over winter mice move in.
Oooo, good reminder! I have a birdhouse on my porch that needs cleaned out. We usually get 2 broods of wren babies every year. The wrens will scold us occasionally when we are on the porch, but mostly they don’t care. It is so much fun watching the babies fledge. They usually spend time going over everything I have on the porch. This past year the babies were fascinated with a bag of yard trash I had on the porch. They were all sitting around the edge peering in! :)
Like Marie, I’m still waiting for the Red Wing Blackbirds to show. They’re sooo late! But I did hear birdsong the past couple of mornings!
Wrens have such pretty songs.
I noticed this morning when I went out to tend to the chickens that the cardinals were singing to beat the band and the male robins were fighting like no ones business.
I noticed yesterday one of the catbirds that builds its nest in my holly tree was sitting AND pooping on my mailbox, so yes spring is here!!!
Well below freezing and a snow/sleet storm this morning here, so I’m glad to hear that spring is *somewhere* :)
Terry
I really do feel for ya. I wish I could send warm rays your way.
It was near 80 degrees Monday and Tuesday here and a high today of 63.
I lived in Minnesota for a year and I will never forget the snow that fell from the sky on Memorial Day. It didn’t stick of course but that was only my second week there and I thought, what did I just do? ;-)
I’m am so jealous of all who have bluebirds. It’s our state bird and they are like the needles in hay stacks, very hard to find.
One early spring I was fortunate to see a male bluebird showing his mate the places he had chosen for the nest. First he showed her our wooden bluebird house in the garden. Then he flew to the power lines until she followed. He then showed her a paper box nest our son had gotten from a bluebird lecture in school which we nailed to the power line pole, then, the pair went to examine another wooden box under a cherry tree. They chose that one. We have to put squirrel guards on ours, as somebody (squirrel, raccoon?) reaches into them.
The feathered nest is so cool! I have to clean out ours, too.
What a nice story.
No blue birds in our part of VA that I have ever seen, I know you will also be trying to keep any birds from nesting on your balcony again. Were their any mites or bugs at all in the nest or was it too cold for them ?
Way too cold for mites to be active, but they are a reason why we don’t bring the nests inside the house for display.
That is a lovely nest. I’m sure the bluebirds will find tufts of animal fur for their nests. Some people save the fur from brushing their pets. They put the fur in a suet feeder and hang it for the birds.
We’ve had spring weather this week and I saw a robin today!
Terry, what is the post above mine?!?!
It was spam and has been removed. Our spam filter, Akismet, is very good but occasionally one sneaks through.
Thanks Steve, it scared me for a minute! :)
Wow you sure get a lot of snow!