Our house finches are a source of amusement most mornings.
They’re nesting, so often the female is inside the birdhouse, while the male is out standing guard, keeping an eye out for other birds or predators.
And sometimes he sits and sings to us. He can be pretty loud some mornings.
They’ve also learned a few tricks this year, like the fact that the ant trap above the hummingbird feeder is a good source of water, and sometimes a tasty ant snack. And if I don’t screw the feeder together quite straight, they can even get a drink of sugar-water from the feeder. I figure that’s okay, since we don’t have a lot of hummingbirds competing with them this year.
We had some visitors in our yard this morning, and they looked kinda cute. Only managed to get a photo of one of them, though. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen them, so hopefully I’ll get another chance.
The birdhouse I built for our yard last year was sized for house finches. This year, I wanted to build a birdhouse for the bluebirds that are already trying to nest.
As before, I used pallet wood, but the pieces I had on hand this year were smaller, so I needed to glue them up into wider boards.
Once the glue had dried, I picked one edge and planed that smooth and flat. Then I used that as a reference to mark the other three sides before cutting the pieces to size, and then finally planing the surfaces flat. I also drilled a hole in the front, and cut the corners off the bottom and left and right sides to provide ventilation.
Then I glued and screwed everything together. I used a fancy hinge I had on hand. A friend pointed out that I could just as easily hinge one of the sides with a couple screws going into oversized holes. Next year!
Then I dug a hole in the yard, put in a post, and mounted the birdhouse to it.
I think it looks pretty good, and we can see it from our dining room table.
This morning, while we were eating breakfast, there was already a pair of bluebirds checking it out.
On windy days, the northern flicker who hangs out in our neighborhood will fly up to the corner of our portale, and cling to the stucco wall, right near the roof, getting out of the wind. He seems to like the spot, as he’ll spend hours there.
It can be disconcerting if one of us heads outside, though. He gets frightened and takes off, and we almost always get surprised by the sudden movement. Sorry, buddy.
This morning, my sweetie noticed a couple bluebirds sitting in the juniper by our corner. I got out the camera, and noticed there’s also a house finch sitting lower in the foliage. Cute!
While waking up this morning, we heard a knocking on the roof. There were a couple ravens doing something up there.
One of them flew over to the top of the post holding the birdhouse and proceeded to eat something. Not sure what it was.
Then a couple other ravens started flying around, and the one from the birdhouse flew to the ground to finish his meal in peace.
Once he was done, he flew to the juniper in our yard, where he was joined by another raven. And then a third one flew up and there was a bit of a scuffle before all three of them flew off to somewhere else. It was fun to watch them.
This morning, just before I headed to the mailbox to pick up yesterday’s mail, I noticed our Northern Flicker hopping around just outside.
He’s a pretty bird, and as long as we don’t hear him pecking at the wood on the house, we feel a little more secure about not having insect problems. Not sure if he’ll stick around or not, but it’s been a couple months now that we’ve enjoyed his company.
I also got to say hello to our neighbor “Sally who names plants” (we don’t know her last name, but everyone knows who we mean when we call her that) this morning. Not even 9am, and it’s already been a good day!
Had a bluebird sitting on the birdhouse the other morning. Not sure if it’s a mountain bluebird or a western bluebird. I’m pretty sure it’s a juvenile male.
I’m not sure if this is the same bird that landed on my shoulder one evening while I was taking pictures of the sunset, but we have a few that hang around the house. I’m hoping to build a couple houses for them over the winter.
