We’ve had some trouble keeping our bird houses upright in recent years. Wooden poles are good for about 2 years and then they rot and become unstable. Last year one our birdhouses and pole toppled over in a gust of wind ruining all the progress of one male House Wren. Thankfully there were no eggs or babies in the nest at the time.
Over the weekend my husband came up with a different idea. He hammered metal tubes several feet into the ground and then placed smaller metal poles inside of the now-underground tubes. He attached the feeders to the pole with metal brackets. It makes for a much sturdier set-up, and we don’t have to worry about rotting wood. The poles aren’t all that attractive, but I hope to paint them dark green once the weather gets above 50 degrees.
We finished getting all the houses in place before sunset on Sunday night. First thing Monday morning there were already pairs of chickadees laying claim to two of the four houses.
If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a chickadee’s head just inside of the hole. He popped into the empty house and then clung onto the side as he looked over his surroundings. I watched his head turn up and down and side to side. Once he determined the house had passed inspection, he and his wife began building a nest.
It’s fun watching birds search for nesting material. Their little pea brains are hard at work as they carefully consider each twig, string or piece of straw.
The chickadee wasn’t alone. There were several sparrows bouncing around in my flowerbeds as well. One of them had a big feather and a stick in his mouth. Sparrows aren’t able to fit in any of our birdhouses, so they must be nesting in nearby trees or shrubs.
I heard my first House Wrens of the season last week. They better hurry up and lay claim to the remaining two houses because property is selling pretty fast around here.