Birds and the Bees

   Each spring there seems to be this migration of  birds that flies through our wooded area and each spring there seems to be this fever to make nests and lay eggs and all that stuff.    We already have four bird houses in the back yard that get used each spring - some of them twice - and really don't need another, but the other day I saw this picture of a bird house different from the ones we have.   Plus I decided that there is still one tree in the back yard that does not have a feeder or a bird house nailed to it so this became this week's project.    There was no plan for this one.   I just grabbed some left over boards and went to the saw.  Some of the plywood is left over from the wagon project a couple weeks ago.   Some is left-over green treated pine.   The pieces were small so is was not difficult to come up with the parts I needed.

     The picture to the right is the shell of the house.   regardless of what happens to the outside of this bird house, this shell should stay in tack.    Another incentive to do this project was the sticks that we have laying around the lawn.   Every time the wind comes up there seems to be a few limbs and sticks laying around the yard that need to be picked up.   As you can see from the table I took several of these limbs and selected an equal size and ran them through the band saw cutting them in half.  

   So the process was to nail the split logs on to the shell of the house - both the sides and the roof.   Some times this worked quite well.   (Some times not.)   I used the nail gun which was a blessing.    I randomly selected sticks that I thought were straight and even, but as I went on, I found out that each stick had its own little twist or was just a little smaller than the stick before it.   (Anyway, they were free - that was important.)  Most of the sticks had fallen from oak trees which should give them a little longer life expectancy.   (This will be another one of those experimental tests.   I'll let you know in five years how it held up.)

   The picture to the right shows the base that I built.  Attached to the top of the base is the bottom of the bird house.    The bird house will set on the bottom with two screws to keep it in place.    Each spring one has to go through and open up each bird house and clean out all of last years nest.   It works better if the new arrivals can build their own new nest.  Most of our bird houses are filled with wrens.   (Noisy little buggers, but they have a neat song.) 

   There it is.   It looks like a pile of sticks with a hole drilled through it.    The roof and all is completely covered with oak twigs.    We'll see if it gets inhabited or if the painted one wins out again.   (The painted one is one that Pam bought on a garage sale and sits by the fire pit.    While the placement and design are totally wrong according to most bird books, it is the first one each spring to have a nest built in it.)              Have a blessed Easter.      DAG.