RECENTLY BIRD HOUSE WAS MENTIONED, GOT ME TO THINKING. SEVERAL YEARS AGO, IN MY QUEST TO FIND PLACES & NAIL UP A BLUE BIRD NEST BOX, A COUPLE ASK ME IF I WOOD GIVE'M A NEST BOX TO SEND TO THEIR SON WHO WAS IN THE MILITARY. SAID HE'D ASK'M TO SEND'M anything THAT WOOD REMIND'M OF BACK HOME. I DID. FEW MONTHS LATER I ASK THE HUSBAND IF THE BIRD HOUSE MADE THE TRIP TO TEXAS? HE ANSWERED: WE SENT IT TO'M (FORGET PLACE) IN TEXAS. SHORT WHILE LATER HE TRANSFERRED TO VIRGINIA, BIRD HOUSE WENT RIGHT ALONG WITH'M.  SHORT WHILE LATER TRANSFERRED TO DC, BIRD HOUSE WENT THERE TOO.

  HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MAN IN A FEW YEARS, WOOD LOV TO HEAR WHERE'N'ALL DID THAT BLUE BIRD NEST BOX TRAVEL TO, THAT WAS BUILT IN MY SHOP  N  ALMA, GA. & DID ANY BIRDS EVER SET FOOT IN IT?

  THANKS FOR SHARING A MEMORY

BUCK NALL

   Cya

 

He needs to get some stickers like people put on their travel trailer to document where it has been.

2 hours ago, Ol Buck said:

THANKS FOR SHARING A MEMORY

Thanks for sharing the story Buck...

We've raised (well not actually us) several families of Bluebirds over the years

Ours mostly resemble the Eastern Bluebird (Left) not to be confused with the Indigo Buntings (right) they're much smaller like a yellow finch; Our annual Indigo's showed up today.

Haven't seen any nesting activity in the bluebird house yet...

    

I read up on blue bird houses since folks say they don't get too many blue birds to use their boxes here in my part of Texas.. but there is blue birds here, so.... Bird birds are about the most particular birds there is. The box has to have the right size inside, the right wood, the right size hole to crawl through, no paint on the boxes and the exact height from the ground and most of all they are loaners..no cars buses or planes in the vicinity....and most of all no people around........ If you are ever going from Creed to Lake City in Colo. on the east side of the road for about 22 miles every fence post has a blue bird box attached to it..The fence is about 30 yards from the highway. Also from the highway they look to be about 3 1/2 to 4 foot off the ground...I tried to get wife to run out there and stand by a box so I could take a picture of them to compare the height but no picture and no trees no where but we stopped a few times and watched and every box seems to have a family of blue birds...It seems awfully lonely out there but I guess thats what they want....  

I was talking to one of my doctors one day about blue birds. She is apparently one who does all she can to help them. She told me that sparrow  will often lay their eggs in the blue bird's nest and let the blue birds hatch them. When the eggs hatch, the sparrows grow much faster, so they eat all the food that the blue birds bring and the young blue birds end up starving to death. She regularly checks her nests, and if any sparrows have hatched, she twists its neck and removes it from the nest.

Indigo buntings are rare here. I had one in my yard a couple of years ago and it hung around for several days. Like no bird I've ever seen before with its coloring

Edited May 11, 20187 yr by It Was Al B

9 minutes ago, It Was Al B said:

She told me that sparrow  will often lay their eggs in the blue bird's nest

One of the reasons the hole and opening size is critical...The 1-1/2" helps restrict sparrows from entering...also as Patch noted the interior dimensions and distance from the opening to the floor bottom is also critical.

12 minutes ago, It Was Al B said:

Indigo buntings are rare here. I had one in my yard a couple of years ago and it hung around for several days. Like no bird I've ever seen before with its coloring

For the past several years we have at least one pair and sometimes two pair. They stay for 3-4 weeks, then don't see them again until the fall for a couple of weeks. They feed on the ground as well as hanging feeders and even the finch feeders. You're right Al, they are so blue it's amazing. This morning he was feeding on the ground next to one of our male Cardinals...the red & blue was awesome. It's cool to see one (Indigo) on the Finch feeders next to a male, yellow Finch too...talk about color...

 

The past couple of years I've attracted 2-3 pair of Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks...male on left, female on the right. They too stay for 3-4 weeks, then move on returning again in the fall for a couple of weeks or so. They showed up about a week ago around the same time as the Mockingbird.

I fooled the hummingbirds this year or so I thought; I had the feeders clean and filled last Friday...good thing too for the first one showed up Saturday. They usually don't return until May 10-12. I'm not seeing them through the day much, but they're hitting the feeders pretty hard...one is empty already and the other two have gone down quite a bit...I'll get the 4th one cleaned and up tomorrow.

   

Gold finch are plentiful here. Must have at least 30 here at the feeders every day. Lots of red finch also. I don't get to see them very often, but I can hear the red headed woodpeckers in the trees behind my home.

I've built many here in CO, the hail nearly destroyed several times, the sun eats away at them and wasps get in and kill the birds. I've experimented with odors that I've heard wasps hate, that don't bother birds........no effect. I sprayed a year ago with dry teflon spray thinking that if a wasp cant get his nest to stick, he'd move on. FAIL. enough wood fibers remained to anchor a nest. Last fall I put Teflon sheets in. So far we have 3 nesting Wrens and maybe a finch.  Wasps are now starting to build nests elsewhere........................just have to wait and see

bird houses.jpg

Like them Ron; particularly the one on far upper left and the "larger" cowboy one in the middle.

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by Grandpadave52

The one in the middle is a Master Putterer.

6 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

The one in the middle is a Master Putterer.

Self portrait carving?

I made a chipmonk house once, the hornets moved in,instead.

Herb

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by Dadio

That's cool Herb...OK hornets not so much though.

It shows what a person with creative vision can do...I probably would have just burned that piece of wood...

I learn something here everyday...

All we seem to get is finches and crackles, all the pretty ones come to the feeders my wife puts out but don't go into any of the houses I've build. 

This one has about 10 finches in it.

7 hours ago, Pat Meeuwissen said:

This one has about 10 finches in it.

That's pretty cool Pat...Not common for finches to nest in man-made structures at least around here.

You obviously have hit the right combo for finches...

Good on you! Thanks for sharing.

I like that Mansion. You sure smoked out which ones are the high class birds.

 

Herb

Blue birds aint gonna have close neighbors.