Hello Nature-Led Friends!
It’s Springtime and I’m springing into action trying to get our homestead, affectionately known as the Fernmire, ready for the warm seasons. Why do we call it Fernmire? Because we have lots of ferns and it can become quite the mire through the rainy season, roughly October through May. I also just really like the name; it goes with my whole “Bog Lady Witch” aesthetic that I’ve been dreaming up in my brain. Strictly for my own entertainment purposes. My rituals are very mundane (like making coffee in the morning) and my curses are basic (like calling bad drivers “a dirty biscuit eater” because it’s better to be annoyed and amused than all about road rage.)
Humans aren’t the only ones who get annoyed about near misses. The birds are going crazy right now! They harken the early morning dawn at 6am now. The Juncos, in particular, are bad drivers flyers and the chickadees aren’t having it! I nearly got hit by a Junco the other day! Did it mistake me for a moving tree? It narrowly missed my face, which would have been unpleasant for both of us! There are of course some rivalries going on as the birds vie for mates making them bolder and maybe not so smart in the throes of passion.
This is the time of year when we see an increase in birds hitting the windows. I’d always hoped if we kept our windows dirty enough the birds wouldn’t hit them, but there’s always a few that seem to hit the windows in the dining room despite the dirty windows. So, this was the year I put forth the effort to clean the windows and put window clings on them that should hopefully stop unnecessary death. There is enough drama going on with the Avian Flu right now, affecting birds and mammals alike. While I don’t want to get into it, I’ve heard several heartbreaking first-hand accounts from Wildlife Enthusiasts/Birders and Wildlife Rehabbers alike of Great Blue Herons, Raccoons and Foxes dying or being humanely euthanized due to complications from HPAI H5N1.
This is the year we were also on time for making a plethora of new birdhouses! You can make four birdhouses from one piece of cedar wood fence plank; the fifth one was made out of spare wood we had as the initial prototype. If you would also like to make birdhouses this is the website we used for instructions and cut sheet. It’s hosted by the Cornell School of Ornithology, which also hosts the wonderful website All About Birds.
https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/right-bird-right-house/?range=pacific
I hope you are well and have the chance to get outside! If you’re doing anything special to support your wild neighbors this year let me know in the comments below!
Additional Links:
For more information about Avian Flu impacts visit the page of the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society below:
The Nature-led Life 
Good to see you, Melanie.
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Thank you, Schingle, Hope you are well!
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I like your birdhouses.
I saw a giant hawk in the park today–what a treat. Needless to say, other birds species were nowhere to be seen.
Our trees are starting to flower and show a haze of green. But it’s so cold! Hoping for more favorable weather soon…(K)
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I’d be quiet too if I were on the menu for a giant hawk! 🙂
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It always horrifies me when artists dump massive mirrored sculptures in woodlands. I dread to think about the amount of birds that may fly into those.
Anyhow, birds are the reason I put off cleaning my windows as I hate the thud of a confused bird hitting the panes and knowing that it was my fault. I have blinds now and they seem to deter them.
Sx
P.S Too warm in the UK.
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I’ve wondered about those mirrored sculptures and houses in forest myself. Yes, blind do seem to help. The dining room was our worst one because two walls had windows that would fool birds into thinking they could fly through, so we started to keep vertical blinds down, but open to still get sunlight. It worked well enough for one window, but the other was still causing strikes. It’s been a week now, so far, so good. It takes a while for me to get used to things on the window, but they aren’t ugly.
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My drive to and from the swimming pool this morning was repleat with “dirty biscuit eaters” (Ha ha! A great curse, Melanie!)
Your bird boxes are really cool. I’m rather amazed that they’re all made from one plank of wood – quite ingenious. I’ve put up a new bird box at the allotment, and will be allowing the lawn out front to go wild again this year (apart from the edges which will be mowed so that I can get to the borders and so the neighbours can see that it’s deliberate and not neglected).
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Ha,ha,ha, too bad you couldn’t have a relaxing drive to the pool! All the more energy to “swim it out” perhaps. We keep our very large yard like a mullet hairstyle, business in the front (by the road) and party in the back, let it go long! LOL!
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