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Transfer of ownership



Ownership has been transferred, and the new tenants are in the house!
My wife Suzanne and I (she is the champion pshhter who once pshht'd up a
deer, along with most of the songbirds within a square mile - yes, she is
that good, and has only passing interest in birding)  fenced in our front
yard for our little Pug to have a safe place to run and play. Her uncle made
3 bluebird boxes out of outdoor plywood, each to a different design which we
installed on top of fence posts. Now, our front yard is only about 20' x
50', and I thought they would only be cosmetic, maybe be used by Chickadees
for roosting in the winter. She couldn't stand the rough wood color, so
painted them all, one white, one blue, and one a strange shade of purple.
All non-toxic paint, of course.
Well, the fence was finished in mid May, and the houses went up, too late, I
thought. Also, I thought Bluebirds didn't like painted houses. Plus,
Nathan's hole saw had wandered a bit, and the hole on the purple house is a
bit big. Big enough I thought to attract Starlings.
I was wrong on all counts. A nice, rather shy family of Bluebirds have taken
over ownership of the purple house. (The PURPLE one!) They have brought
along a nice group of teenagers, complete with speckled breasts, to help
out. House hunting seems to be over, and the deed signed (looks like hen
scratching to me), though they seem to also use the white house from time to
time, though this one seems to be used by the teenagers mostly for roosting;
who wants a house full of tennagers??
For those interested, though my yard is small, I have a slightly larger back
yard, the neighbors have big yards, my parents keep a "wilderness", an uncut
and wild area, and there are wood edges 1/8 mile away on almost all sides,
even though suburban, so their trips to the grocery store should not be a
problem.
The "teenagers" are from a first brood from (I guess) my parents box that
they failed to clean out, so they have already been successful this year,
though how they escaped the neighborhood felines I don't know (Both our cats
are strictly indoors; no repair bills, no fleas, and no "presents" left on
the doorstep.), so it seems they are good parents, and come with good
references. They've only been around for a couple of weeks, so I hope to
hear the sound of little ones in the future. We will not disturb the box,
though I have heard you can "look in" on them. Suzanne is adamant about
this, and I agree.
When I was 6 years old (1957), a Bluebird was in our yard (now my parent's
yard, 2 houses down from my present home). My mom called me outside to see
it, as she believed that they would soon be gone, and I would never get the
chance to see a Bluebird again in this life. Sadly, this one got into the
clothesline pole and got trapped and died before I ever saw it, and I
thought it was the last Bluebird on Earth. It was many years until I ever
saw another (I was grown), and even more years before I saw one in my yard.
It is such a joy to see these sweet creatures nesting in my yard, especially
since my memory of "the last Bluebird" are still so vivid after almost 45
years. May they be here for my grandchildren.
Thanks for listening!
Alex Netherton, the Appalachian Naturalist
alex@alexnetherton.com
Asheville, NC
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mountainbirding/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/appalachian-naturalist-news/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carolinanaturalist/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carolinaponds/