Bird News
The wrens are hellbent on nesting in and around the house. This spring I had one try to build a nest in the watering can sitting on top of a rain barrel on the north porch. Now I discover there’s a nest in a box on top of the shelves in the carport. I think I’ll let them have it. Next season I’ll build them some boxes and set them out in likely places.
At least the wrens have smaller families than the swallows, and they’re a little more solitary so there aren’t great clumps of bird poop on the porches. They like privacy. I’m good with that. I asked the swallows to move because my porches were beginning to look like highway overpasses, with swallow nests covering every inch. It took me two seasons to dissuade them, but they’ve moved on.
We’ve got other birds nesting in and around the big trees. There are at least two pair of cardinals calling our place home, plus a host of house sparrows. But it’s hard to see the nests because the trees are big and bushy, even the new ones we planted when we moved in. But all the pretty birds are proud of what they’ve got so they talk a lot, and I get to stand outside in the morning and listen to them celebrate and tell everyone where the cats are.