Last Spring we had two pairs of birds staying in our birdhouses, one pair of Chickadees and one pair of Wrens. As it turns out, those two types of birds have different nesting habits. So I thought I would post some photos of the nests that I found during this cleanout.
Anyway, now that the frost is on the punkin’ (well sort of…. we are getting there.. sad, hunh?… where did Summer go?) it is time to clean out the houses to get them ready for the next season. Here are the houses, side by side.
The house that the Wrens shacked up in is on the left, and the house that the Chickadees used is on the right. I started by removing one side of the Chickadee house. Here is what I found.
It is the usual moss-padded nest that Chickadees like to make. They do like their comforts.
The sticks are from the Wrens, who tried to take over the property after the Chickadees had flown the coop. We discouraged that so that they would not think that they own the whole neighborhood. They didn’t get very far filling this house with sticks.
The black spot in the middle is a spider who chose a lousy place to spin a web and didn’t make it. Here is a closeup.
Eww. At least it has expired so I didn’t have to fight with it to get it out of there.
So I cleaned out all the junk.
Then I screwed it back together again.
Next, I tackled the Wren house. Here is what I found inside.
Wrens like to make tall piles of sticks for their nest. Looks like a lot of work for such tiny birds. It doesn’t look very comfortable either. I think I am liking the Chickadee plan better.
I didn’t spy any spiders this time. I cleaned it out.
Then I put it back together.
And here they are, ready for another season next Spring.
We leave the Chickadee house up all Winter because the Chickadees come back often and check it out. I guess that is like renewing the lease or something.
When did I become a housekeeper for birds?
Yep. That’s right, it’s just a cheap box fan from the Big Box Home Improvement Store (BBHIS) with a cheap Heat/AC filter stuck on the back of it. It looks like this from the other side.
