Apartments for Rent!

Hope we have this many guests!

Saw some purple martins this morning outside our bedroom window. I watched to see if they were inspecting  apartments in our new purple martin birdhouse in the back yard.  They didn't check it out while I was watching.  Once you get some birds building nests in your birdhouse, you will have that same family returning year after year.


Papa Smith used to have several gourds hanging from a pole. He cut holes in the gourds for the birds to nest.  I could never talk Jim into letting me have gourds but he did allow the beautiful birdhouse that I got from Bill and girls last Nov. for my birthday.  Ronnie helped him install the steel pole in cement when he was here Thanksgiving.  It is a telescoping pole that is easy to raise and lower.  We lowered the pole recently when we were expecting strong winds.  Maybe I can lower the pole and check the progress of eggs hatching when we have a family taking residence, and see the baby birds.


Purple martins are supposed to help control the mosquito population.  They feed on insects. My veg. garden plot is nearby.  I'm hoping they will eat the insects that invade the garden this summer.


We have had a big variety of bird visitors this winter at our bird feeder in the back yard.  First the big birds (blue jays, cardinals, doves, red wing blackbirds) come and eat.  Then they move on and smaller birds move in for breakfast. Then the tiny wrens and other little birds play around for awhile.  It's so much fun watching them.  I don't know how many big bags of wild bird seed we have bought this cold winter.  The feeder has 2 sides and I have to fill it often.


When we were pruning the shrubery the past couple of weeks, we found so many bird nests.  Mocking birds love to build nests in the climbing rose bushes, among the wicked thorns.  Others built nests in the trees.  We have several bluebird boxes and all of them were used one or more times last summer.

Our purple martin bird house
Pole is raised about 15 feet

We had a lot of red wing blackbirds this year for the first time.  We had those at the farm and I thought they nested near wet areas.  There's no water around where we live now.


Too bad I can't get close enough to get some photographs.  They fly away when they see me at the window with my camera and zoom lens pointed at them!!


Wish we could get rid of the noisy crows and most lately lots of buzzards seem to be roosting in the woods in front of us.


I never see a large flock of blackbirds without remembering the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Birds".