One Cold Morning at the Lodge

[skeeter]

On 2/16/2020 at 12:02 PM, Bill Babler said:

We have close to 3000 sq. ft. of windows that stretch up to 30 ft. in one section on the East side of the Lodge, just impossible to put stickers on them.

That's a lot of glass !!!  We have a lot too overlooking the Lake and stretching across 38' of the lakeside of the house, but nothing like that sq. footage, so we just concentrated placing stickers on the porch door and windows on the end of the house where the feeders are deployed.  Hated hearing that "thump" when a bird hit the glass or finding one that was dead. 

They really seem to help the birds realize that there is glass there and not an escape or flyway route to get away from the Sharp Shinned Hawk that patrols the area.  Helps with the Hummers too when they arrive. 

[Bill Babler]

Looked at the interweb and there were pic's of Bluebirds on Suet feeders everywhere so I guess I'm not special.  I have 4 MDC Bluebird boxes out on 40 acres and they just won't rent them.  They are made and hung according to their recommendations and nothing.  They will nest in a hanging basket on the porch or under the Porta Coe in a grill, but nothing in the boxes.  Nothing is using the boxes, I have had them up for 10 plus years and no birds nest in them, every year, clean as a whistle.  

About every year I will see males go into the boxes, especially the one just outside my boat shed.  He goes in and then gets on top and flutters and calls and she then goes inside, stays a few seconds and then comes out and sits on the roof and POOPS.  That's usually about the end of that.  Seems pretty rude to me, but she had made her decision.

[tho1mas]

Bill - I have had good luck using fence posts for the boxes. They also need to be clear of over head limbs or other obstructions. Need to clean them out each winter.

 

[skeeter]

The female Bluebird is known as the "decider" ( kind of like the human female 😉 ) on where she's gonna' make her nest.  Bluebirds are super picky about the amount of Sunshine, nearby areas of vegetation for the fledglings to fly to when they first leave the nest, the direction the box opening faces ( East or South seems to work ) and even the type of mounting pole the box is mounted on in picking a nest box site.  We've had luck with all three of our boxes on just one Acre but have an ongoing battle over the formerly most popular box with these darned sparrows that have taken it over.  Due to our local population of welcome Blacksnakes and Kingsnakes, we used square metal tubing for the mounting poles since those snakes cannot climb them and get into the nest box.  We've also had to run Wasps out of the boxes that the Bluebirds will not come near and do that with regular Wasp spray followed by a simple wash-out of the box.  The lady who runs the Wild Birds store over in Branson told us to leave the nesting material in the box during the Winter and said the Bluebirds will use them as night-time shelter.  Also liked tho1mas's suggestion about clearing overhead, nearby limbs. 

[Blazerman]

i have this pic from our old river place on the Meramec that i took when i was planting some milkweed for monarchs. In the background is the bluebird house i put up.

i think the plan was to show the before and after of the milkweed. 

The bluebird house had been there a few years by then. i think it was the spring of 2015 when i put it there and a week after setting it in place, there was a pair of bluebirds using it.

I remember this because i saw the female going in and out of the house and when i looked, there was a nest in it.

A couple weeks after that we had a spring flood and the water got up to where it flooded that field and the water was about 2 foot high on the post that held the bluebird house. And the bluebirds didn't care and never missed a beat and had a bunch of babies over the years up until we sold the place. I often wonder now if it is still there and they are still using it. 

Btw, i don't remember ever seeing milkweed after it flooded and i figured the seed had washed away.