"Approved" Nesting Material: Forget that Dryer Lint!

Hey folks,

Many of us would like to help the progress of our nest-building buddies by putting out material for them to use for their nests. There is a little confusion regarding what is good material and what might not be good for our friends. Some people think that they are doing a good thing by putting out their dryer lint for them to line their nests with. Unfortunately, this is not a good idea for a couple of reasons. First of all, if any of you have ever taken the lint out of your washing machine and revisited it later (you know like it didn't quite make it into the trash right away), it is a hard compacted nugget-mess. Yuck-o! Not good nesting material. Because it absorbs so much water, it becomes matted and heavy and thus doesn't allow water to pass through. A nest will eventually get wet, so they need material that allows water to pass through or that will allow space to be between it and the next type of material like grass, etc. Plus, there is concern that additives in laundry detergents (i.e., chemicals) will harm birds, including phosphates and dyes and fragrance. Sooooooo.....on that note, here is a list of approved material as specified by the bird experts, The Cornell Ornithology Lab.

** Dead Twigs or leaves
** Dry grass
** String or thread or yarn in 4-8 inches
** Human or Horse hair
** Animal fur (cat or dog) Good excuse for a brushing!
** Sheep's wool
** Feathers (The mama will use her own downy, too)
** Plant fluff or down
** Moss
** Cotton batting
** Bark Strips
** Pine Needles
** Thin Strips of cloth 1"wx6"l
** Shredded paper

Take an old onion, shallot or other mesh bag like the type lemons and limes come in and fill it and hang it somewhere accessible like a pole, tree or post.

Anjoy nesting season!

The Nest that Sylvia Built

Okay, so I called her Betty before, but I have changed Mama Bluebird's name to Sylvia. Lloyd and Sylvia Bluebird. And they are building away. I should say Sylvia is building away because it seems that she is doing all the work and all Lloyd is doing is running his beak and flying in and out every now and then to seemingly criticize her work. The progression is amazing and the footage is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen.

So the routine basically goes like this. Sylvia lands on top of the house and makes some noise and hops around with a bunch of dead grass in her beak. Then she hops in and drops it as she enters the box. She chirps while she hops around and then does the spin, pat down dance. She spreads her wings, sticks her tail in the air and spins in a circle, patting down the grass on the sides with her chest. It seems she is also scratching with her feet. The center is still bare, but she is building up the sides.
Then she flies out and comes back about 10 minutes or more later with more grass and continues her funny pat down dance. Lloyd is outside on the top of the box or in a nearby tree just chirping like crazy and my guess is he's asking for updates, bossing her around or asking if she needs anymore supplies. He flies in a few minutes later empty-beaked and inspects. Sometimes he goes in and actually messes up what she's done! And sometimes he takes stuff out as if it is not suitable. The other day he was inside and she was outside and it was almost as if she was yelling at him as he scattered stuff about and she flew in on top of him and he immediately flew out! It was the first time we had seen them both inside.

Anyway, a couple extremely windy days, a brief cold snap and some freakish wintry weather have upset their progress slightly,, but they have kicked it up a notch. I understand that she will lay her eggs a couple days after the completion of the nest. There is still some wood showing through on the bottom, so I think they are still working.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me.......

Okay, a cheesy one-hit wonder from the eighties, but also how the Bluebirds must be feeling now that Big Brother, or rather, a big bird nerd is watching. That's right, the bird-cam is up and running and I am ready to start recording all of the live bird on bird action! Seriously folks, this has got to be one of the best gifts ever and it even had sound! I have it connected to my big-screen TV and can watch all of the activity in two ways: from the comfort of my couch in front of the fireplace and also out the window that is just to the left of the TV and has a perfect view of the birdhouse. I am trying to come up with a name for the birdie love shack and welcome any suggestions. I think I have the names for the birds: Betty and Lloyd. I have no clue where those came from, but Lloyd popped in when I was animating Betty, watching her hopping around inside, looking up at the camera suspiciously. I imagined her yelling out to Lloyd (who was on top chirping at her): "Lloyd? Did you install a ceiling fan in here? Did the landlords do some renovations I don't know about?" Hopefully the camera won't deter them. They have built in the same spot the past two years, and have bred successfully all season long both years. I just checked and there is still no new building material, but hopefully we'll see some action in the next week or so. It's definitely time for box hunting, and nest building should begin in a few weeks. I am planning on setting up two of my recycled milk jug boxes in neighbor's yards since they seem to be too close to my original box for comfort. Hopefully they will choose the boxes over people's black metal mailboxes that are not conducive for eggs.

Well, happy spring and remember to be alert to birds shooting across roads as they become more active. The Robins are arriving in the mid-Atlantic and the White-throated Sparrows and Juncos should be shoving off soon. The song Sparrows are all a-twitter and the woodpeckers and Nuthatches are very active. Spring is springing!