Goody-goody gum drops, spring is coming. The locals are returning, cleaning out old digs or looking for new ones. Tragically, one overly exuberant male (had to be, flaming red head) knocked his house out of the tree. He chattered quite a bit about it with another one near by. Do birds curse? I can only imagine the content of that conversation.
Here’s a testament of Nature’s recycling program; second lives for poly fiber-fill and Easter grass.
Guys! (eye roll) They always think they can fix things and then they brake the whole house!! lol
I like to throw dryer lint in the yard for the birds to build nest, I’ve heard it was a good idea.
One time I observed two very enthusiastic sparrows unraveling all the twine on my sweet pea vines to set up housekeeping. Wanting to be helpful, I’ve always put a ball of thread or shreddy fabric out for the birds. Recently, I’m re-thinking it after reading an article which said that studies were finding carpet fibers deep in body tissue. It made me wonder if my sentimentality toward cute nesty birds was actually putting something untoward into the ecological chain. Not sure if birds need cotton coated poly thread, commercial dyes or other non-organic items to build nests with. So for now I’ve stopped doing that. Better I think to grow the right kind of plants and let nature know best.
*giggles at Elizabeth’s comment*
Birds recycle too, yay!
My kids always love to leave out things for the birds to make nests with. When they were little (the kids, not the birds) there were several wrens that returned to us every year. I would stand behind the kids & “talk” like it was the birds. It took them years to figure out that the birds weren’t really talking. The two most popular were Ralph Foster Harrington Bird III (nickname bird-the-third) & his ever flirtatious girlfriend Beatrice Baxter Buxley. (o.k. YOU try being at home all day with a baby, toddler, & 3 yr old & see if you don’t go just a little bit wacky, too!)
Our favorite thing to leave is cotton string mop-heads. The birds go nuts with those.