Bluebird Houses and Summer Birding Plans

Two or three years ago students at Jacob's school used our shop for a woodworking class, led by some of the most high-end carpenters in town (where just about everyone and his brother-in-law is a carpenter). Among other things, the project that they worked on was building bluebird houses, two of which they have given us as a thank-you. For two years I couldn't care less about those, and they just sat in a shed waiting for their time to come, I guess. And then, finally, this winter I got into birding - and remembered them. I just dug them out today and figured out how to open them (they have one pivot side, which is opened and closed with a screw) and am now cleaning them out. I'm gonna buy metal posts for them next time I go to the farm supply, and this weekend the houses are going up - given that the snow has melted in a few places. With the temperatures suddenly in the 40s, the robins and the bluebirds are going to be here, I predict, probably in three weeks or so, robins will come earlier, I am guessing. Maybe sooner? I don't know! But I am overexcited to put the houses up. The students, by the way, did a pretty nice job on them - much better than the Chinese would have.

And here is the list of improvements I am going to make to entice more birds this summer:

2008 Birding Plan

Houses:

Move the wren house over to the rainier cherry tree - six feet.
Place another wren house on the yellow delicious apple tree in the orchard.
Place a bluebird house in the vineyard - don't know where yet - and another one on the north-west end of the front-yard pasture, near the sewer tank (that's in the ground).

Equipment:

Buy a nice, big, stationary birdbath - birthday present!
Buy a second wren house.
Buy two high T-posts.

Bird-friendly plants to plant/buy:

Plant another Northern star (pie/sour cherry tree).
Buy a fuchsia plant, hang on the front porch on the big hook for hummingbirds.
Leave pigweed (wild amaranth) grow in some areas.
Plant sunflowers.
Establish a permanent purple coneflower/black-eyed susan patch.

I am planning on placing orange halves for orioles into my tray feeders.

I think our farm is probably very attractive to the birds in the summer, even though I haven't been paying close attention to them in the past. It's a real fruit farm - we have a massive patch of elderberry trees, over an acre of grapes, several different cherry trees (though two are still babies), a crabapple, blackberry bushes in the yard, a blackberry patch on the fence line, a decent red and black raspberry patch - both summer and fall kinds, a strawberry patch, several soft and hard maples, a mountain ash in the front yard, an apple orchard, and another apple tree patch being established, honeysuckle growing wild, gooseberry bushes, and a red currant bush that we planted this past summer. Seed-bearing weeds grow too! Plus, we pasture beef, so we have quite a bit of pasture areas for robins and bluebirds and such.

Birdwatching is also amazing to do with your kids - Josie now knows and can identify over 15 species, and it's just very sweet to do it together - she gets so excited. Like mine, her favorite bird is northern cardinal, because it's red! I can't wait to see what happens in the spring and summer and how it goes.