Springtime moves the Bird Box Cleanout chore to the front of the to-do list…
Three different species used this box in succession:
Those tiny birds haul all this stuff into the boxes one twig / feather / strand at a time:
The big branches come from a pick-up-sticks session; we don’t have birds that big around here!
One nest sported a decorative yellow plastic ribbon that the bird surely regarded as a rather tough bit of grass:
They could handle this job on their own, but we think we can reduce the number of parasites by airing out the boxes. We should do the cleanout in the fall to provide nice empty cavities that they can use for winter shelter, but they seem perfectly happy to snuggle together atop the nests in the cold and the dark…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 