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Cheryl and I tried to attract bluebirds when
we lived in the city. We had several pairs of cardinals that visited our
feeders, we had house finches by the score, we even had goldfinches,
nuthatches, chickadees, titmouses, sparrows and Carolina wrens frequently. But
the elusive bluebirds, were never seen anywhere near our backyard. Blue birds
are small and they are strikingly beautiful. The males are a brilliant blue
with reddish brown breast and white bellies, and the females are a softer blue
with softer red breast and white bellies. They are a special treat to see.
I read a couple of birding books and
discovered that they are actually very shy. They really don’t like to be around
humans and even in the animal world, they prefer to have private nesting away
from other birds.
They are
more frequently seen in the outer suburbs, or out in the country where they can
have more privacy and escape from contact with people. It seemed that we were
destined to never see any blue birds.
About four years ago, we moved out into the
county to a home on over an acre of land and predominantly clear of trees. On
one side we have a nice row of 25-year-old willow oaks and in the back we have
a substantial green break of leyland cypress, long needle pines and four
well-spaced willow oaks. Altogether, it is a formidable sound and site barrier
that protects the back of the house. The front and other side have no trees
except what our next door neighbor and we have recently planted.
Since we love and care for wildlife, we
quickly put up feeders of sunflower with mixed seeds and thistle to attract
various species of birds. The primary feeder was soon overwhelmed by large
black birds who lined the trees behind the house and then continuously attacked
the feeder, running off smaller birds who dared to try for the seeds. The
feeder was quickly emptied as the black birds scattered all the smaller seed
they didn’t want and devoured the sunflower seed like ravenous sharks tearing
up a helpless victim. We decided we didn’t love all wild birds.
At Christmas, I saw a bird feeder at a
garden shop that looked like a solution for our problem. Around the
circumference of the feeder, wire with small holes had been installed that
would only allow small birds to reach the seed inside the feeder. My feeder was
a very nice feeder, so I decided to adapt my existing feeder to ward off the
evil back birds and allow only the smaller birds to feed from it.
A quick trip to Home Depot and I had all the
materials I needed for my project. When springtime arrived, I managed to create
a reasonable facsimile of the feeder I had seen. The wire had small openings
that would allow only the smaller birds to perch and stick their heads in for
feeding. It worked, and after a short time the frustrated black birds quit
coming to the feeder and smaller birds began flocking in.
We had all the same birds we saw in the city
and then one day Cheryl said, “ I saw a bluebird on the feeder”. Now bluebirds
prefer insects of all kinds so I’m not sure they were eating from the feeder,
but they were at the feeder. We were excited and kept our cameras close at hand
to capture the next magical moment when we would be blessed with a blue bird
sighting. And surely enough, we saw and photographed blue birds around our very
own feeder in our own back yard! We were excited and began to think about how
to keep them nearby.
After some more reading, I went to the feed
and seed store, and bought a bluebird house. Everything I read said that you
must put the house in a remote area, away from trees and out in the open if
possible. I selected a spot on the open side of the yard, about midway, and
stationed near the edge of the property. The birdhouse sits on a one-inch pipe
and faces toward our home; as a matter of fact, it can be seen directly out the
window over the kitchen sink. The neighbors have a flowerbed with low shrubs
just behind the birdhouse.
For the rest of the year, no bluebirds took
up residence in the house I had placed. Over the winter, I purchased an
additional bluebird house and erected it in a clearing of the trees in the back
yard. Instead of the one-inch pipe, this one was mounted on a four-inch cedar
post, so I thought that they might find it more substantial and worthy of
building a nest there. It was placed where it can be seen outside of the
breakfast room in our home.
You can imagine our excitement the following
spring when Cheryl announced that she had seen a bluebird on the old birdhouse
on the side of the yard. Surely enough, both male and female appeared and we
watched them bring in all their nesting materials. The female stayed for the
summer and we are sure she hatched their new family. I was very careful not to
disturb the house while mowing and we never tried to open it while they were
nesting. I did get close enough to hear the little ones cheeping, but we never
saw them. And then one day they were gone.
Not forever, for we saw them occasionally atop the birdhouse or in the trees. They are always such a special treat to see; it is like God has trusted you to view one of his most elusive creatures, because He knows that you care for them, as he wants to care for us. It is a privilege.
For a long time we didn’t see them and we
started to wonder if they would come back. You don’t think about them every day
and eventually when you don’t see them, you forget about them.
In late summer, we pulled into the driveway
one afternoon and parked the car outside the garage on the parking pad. As we
walked toward the garage door, I heard a strange scratching sound that I had
not heard before. Cheryl had already walked into the garage, so I called to her
to stop and listen to the noise I heard. She came back and we both decided that
it was something we had never heard before. I followed the sound and it led me
to the back side corner of our home. On this corner, there is a downspout from
the gutters that connects to an under ground black plastic pipe to carry the
run off away from the house. As I approached the downspout, it was apparent
that the noise was coming from where the spout joined the underground pipe at
ground level.
“It’s a field mouse or a rat”, I said, “It
sounds just like a mouse trapped in the pipe and he can’t get out”.
“What are you going to do?”, she asked.
“Leave it”, I responded, “I don’t want any
critters under the house”.
“You can’t do that” she said, “You’ve got to
get it out, whatever it is”
I knew her tone and I knew that I had no
other alternative, even though I truly didn’t want to free a rat, I went into the garage and got some tools to
pry the pipe away from the down spout. After working a couple of minutes, I
made an amazing discovery. It was not a rat, but a bird!
In fact,
in another minute, I pried the pipe away from the spout and the most beautiful
blue bird I have ever seen was looking straight at me. He looked at me as if to
say, “it took you long enough to get here, now get me out of here!” Another
minute and the opening was big enough for him to flap his wings and he sprung
from his trap and flew straight to the birdhouse on the side of the yard. It
was our blue bird!
I was astonished and amazed that it was the
blue bird in the pipe. What if we had not driven in when we did? What if I had not heard the faint scratching
sound? What if Cheryl had not insisted that I free “whatever it was” from that
pipe? How had he fallen into the downspout? How long had he been there? None of
those questions really matter. The important thing is that we did what we did!
In doing so, we preserved something that was precious to us. We love bluebirds,
and we feel so privileged that we were there to show them how much we care.
I think we had a family in each birdhouse
this year and I swear that one flew by me the other day and chortled a little song
that sounded like,
“Thank you friend”.
“You’re Welcome”, I whistled back.
Footnote 2009 :
I found a dead baby bluebird lying in the grass this year after a strong
thunderstorm. Fifty feet from the birdhouse, it must have fallen out or was
blown out by the storm. I carefully wrapped it and buried it out in the trees
at the back of the house. I said a few words of respect over it’s featherless
body and then gingerly buried it with the greatest respect. I didn’t tell
Cheryl; she holds them so tenderly, I did not want her to mourn.
Thank you for the favor giv'n, just to view
Thank you for their awesome beauty shared
And thanks for allowing us to have cared"
David and Cheryl
