"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." A.Holmes

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Bird Houses

We brought a lot of our bird houses from Cedar Pond to our new home here at Laughing Dove Farm. This bird house is now on our front porch wall. This spring there were some swallows checking it out , even going inside the middle hole but I suspect my cat Miss Marple scared them off by staring at the bird house and twitching her tail at them as she watched them indoors from the window very near the bird house. She didn't fool them at all, she was easy to spot from outside. Poor Miss Marple , smart birds.
We bought this bird house at a Spokane garden and craft fair and hung it up over the front porch. Almost immediately the swallows moved in, built a nest, and raised a family or two. Only a few feet away from the previous bird house shown but immediately bird approved. Maybe because there was no twitching cat staring at it ?
 
I bought this bird house at a Yelm Christmas craft show. The lady who built it set up her table with about 20 different versions of this birdhouse and was sold out immediately. Birds love it .We had both sparrows and swallows raising families in this bird house all summer.

This bird house was originally hung in an old stump at my husband's youngest sister and her family's home. When they moved we adopted it and brought it with us to our new home. The birds here seemed to think it was a nice place to raise a family, and again, sparrows moved in. This bird house overlooks the sheep pens and paddocks , apparently a popular place with many birds.
One of our granddaughters helped build and paint this birdhouse beloved by Western Bluebirds. Yay, we finally have bluebirds on our place, and in abundance. Bluebirds lived in 3 of our birdhouses and we love watching them.

Unfortunately this bird house was taken over by cow birds, but that is O.K. They ate a lot of bugs and since this bird house is perched on a corner post of our ram pen, that was a good thing. The cow birds also ate the seeds that fell out of the hay I tossed to the rams. The cow birds never became a big problem so I let them be and they raised at least 2 families here and moved on.
I bought this bird house at the local supermarket because I could not resist it. I bought it too late for it to be taken into consideration by the swallows and sparrows that kept checking it out after they'd already settled in other places. Maybe next year. The cool thing about this bird house is it has a nice back door that is easily opened for cleaning and just as easily secured.
I love bird houses, I love birds. I have a collection of bird nests, bird books, and love bird watching. The creativity of birds and how and where they choose to build their nests or make their homes often goes against what is  written about them by the experts in the bird books. All I have to do is watch and observe the birds outside my window and back door to discover there is way more to the average wild bird than what you'll find in your bird books. Birds are truly amazing and I am thankful God has filled His creation with them and sometimes birds will find a few of my birdhouses worthy of raising their families in.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed seeing your many bird houses. I remember thru the years seeing your many bird nests, books etc. So happy you now have blue birds!
We enjoy sitting by the window watching hummers and butterflies.

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Enjoyed this post about your birdhouses and birds who move in and raise families. Thanks for sharing.

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

Texastracking said...

you are much more successful than I am about where your birds choose to nest - we have a few houses around the property but swallows seem determined to nest just under roof line and poo all over patio! Oh well - great fun to find clever bird houses and congratulations on the bluebirds! they are such a joy to watch - we have a lot of doves, mocking birds, a few jays, many small swallows and cardinals - the occasional migratory birds stop in our large yard for either water (we keep shallow dishes filled - our cat loves them too!) or feeding -
God gave us a real gift in creating birds - thanks for sharing your fun collection of houses!

Deb said...

What a fun post. I loved seeing all the houses. I, too, have many and get very excited when a bird makes one their nesting home. It's wonderful to watch and learn.

Debbie - Mountain Mama said...

You do have quite the collection, oh my! I have a few but nowhere near as many as you have! My mom has a nice collection as well, including a purple martin house - every Memorial weekend the purple martins swarm the house, it's quite the sight!

Henny Penny said...

I love your collection of birdhouses. Last year we bought and hung three new blue bird boxes, but we did not see a blue bird all summer. It makes me sad because for years we had several blue bird pairs that would nest here and raise their young. We don't know why the blue birds left.

L. D. said...

You have a great collection of birdhouses. I think they add character to a yard or property. Where I moved, no one seems to put out anything. Fortunately for me the former owners left three different birdhouse.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

When we lived in VA, we had several bird houses, including one for purple martens. But we still had those birds who would try to nest on overhangs on the front porch. Sadly, we had to issue eviction nitices.

Unknown said...

we have a few houses around the property but swallows seem determined to nest just under roof line and poo all over patio! Oh well - great fun to find clever bird houses and congratulations on the bluebirds! they are such a joy to watch

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