You know me . . whatever I’m doing, I jump in 200% and go hog wild with it. Right now . . it’s bluebirds. They’re so gorgeous and when a little glimmer of sunlight shines on the male, the beauty takes my breath away.
Bluebirds
Mostly l I’ve been taking pictures through the back door glass so none of my bird pictures are great. As soon as it gets a little warmer, I’ll set the tripod up on the porch and sit out there and try to get some good pictures.
In Texas, having some kind of ag exemption is pretty imperative to keep our property taxes reasonable. The previous neighbors had kept cows on our land and we were able to have our ag exemption due to those cows but then they sold the cows and they moved. We don’t want to have cows . . for so many reasons. First, we don’t have a clue what to do with them. We don’t have a full size pickup or a stock trailer. Probably most important is that we have no water for them – no ponds and we don’t need to be running that much water out of our well. So, having cows isn’t a good idea for us. I would love to have goats but we don’t have fences for goats and by the time we spent the money to put up the fencing, we would have spent more than we would save on our property taxes . . not to mention that I’m not sure either of us could deal with about 24 goats.
Last year, when it was time to come up with a plan, we met with a wildlife biologist and decided to go with a wildlife exemption for attracting and improving habitat for bluebirds. We had to choose some kind of “animal” that we saw around here already. We talked about choosing quail but the success rate of releasing cage raised quail into the wild was terrible . . like 20%. Our closest neighbor chose turkeys so we went with bluebirds. We had seen a handful of them around here the first year we were here but then we didn’t see many so I was afraid they had left. They can migrate but in this area, if conditions are right (water, food supply, not too many predators), they will stay year round.
We’ve been working hard over the past 8 months or so, and the within the last few weeks, we’ve seen so many bluebirds, so I hope our work is paying off.
Part of our plan was to build and put up 16 birdhouses. You can imagine that I’m saying “we” but Vince is mostly the one doing the work. He had plotted out where all the houses would be.
Bluebird House map
You can see that some of them are deep in the woods and I don’t go out and deal with those by myself. I’ll check the ones that I feel safe checking but Vince goes with me to check the ones that are too far into the woods. After seeing the bobcat, I’m a little apprehensive about being too far out by myself, even though I always have “protection” with me.
This past weekend while it was warm and sunny, Vince went and retrieved all 16 birdhouses, cleaned them all, brushed them down, waterproofed the cedar and added a white reflective film to the top.
Birdhouses
There are some pretty detailed guidelines about how the houses are to be built . . dimensions, openings, doors that open for cleaning, which direction they face, etc. I think it’s so cool that they have the little space between the top roof and the “sub roof”. That’s to help them not get so hot.
The bluebirds love mealworms so between the chickens and the bluebirds, I’m not able to grow enough to keep them fat and happy so I ordered more mealworms and will get two more worm beds going.
Last year we didn’t have our houses up in time for them to nest in our boxes so I’m so anxious to see if we get any residents this year. They should begin building nests soon . . either in our boxes or somewhere else. Vince has forbid me to peek into the nests more than once a week so I have been using the binoculars quite a bit. There’s a box I can see from the front porch and a box I can see from the garden.
Yep, add bluebird watching to my daily routine . .
Erin says
This is fantastic! I love watching the bluebirds here! I spend too much time watching them! Love their colors!
SharO says
I agree bluebirds are beautiful. They do migrate to MN in spring and it is so fun to watch them arrive. But, here, the boxes are a little different as we need to protect the eggs from the snakes. So, beware.
Heidi says
You need a bird box camera! Some even have a microphone. You could keep watch right from your house.
Dottie N. says
Love seeing bluebirds – they are SO beautiful. We haven’t seen any since we moved from WV to Texas (Panhandle) but hoping we’ll get to see them again. In the meantime, I’ll certainly enjoy seeing yours!
Sherrill says
That was the FIRST thing (well, one of the first) I wanted DH to do when we moved to CO was put up a bluebird box and MAN, was I excited when they moved in!! They are SO pretty and I loved watching them but I was also enamored with the hummingbirds as we had a ton of those. I’m just glad the neighbors down the road who have a good chunk of land have boxes up and some of theirs are inhabited every year so I catch glimpses of them quite often!! That’ll be fun to hear of your bluebirds this spring/summer.
Jean says
We are in Fl and have a blue bird house on the corner of our deck. A pair have been checking it out so we hope they will move in. Last year we had a pair that had one baby from 4 eggs – we put screening on the bottom of the house inside so the mites will drop to the bottom and not bother the babies. We did get to see them feeding and raising this little one and it fledged from the nest before we left to go back north to Canada. Our neighbours told us they raised another brood after we left. Yes, you do have to watch out for snakes. They like to steel the eggs or heaven forbid, the babies.
Glenda says
I have relatives around there and there are lots of redbirds in some areas, too. It’s amazing to see flocks of them flying across the road. I didn’t know you could get an exemption for bluebirds, that’s wonderful.
Theresa says
That’s a really cool choice– they’re so beautiful!
CJ says
That’s so cool! I didn’t know there was such as thing as a tax exemption for wildlife! I will have to see if we have that in Arkansas.
Judy H says
They’re beautiful!! I’ve never seen bluebirds in my part of TX….too far south, I suppose.
JudyL says
The wildlife biologist said they’re all the way to the Gulf. Maybe if you want them, you could get a bluebird feeder and some meal worms and see if you can attract some. Bluebirds like to get inside the feeder so they’re not competing with other birds for the food. This is one of my favorite feeders.
http://amzn.to/1ATvkzS
Pdudgeon says
Chickadees and house wrens will also use bluebird boxes. so if you see any of those around you might want to add them to your list of birds.
JudyL says
We have more of a problem with house sparrows and snakes. We check the boxes at least once a week and will do it several times a week during nesting season so hopefully we can stay ahead of any issues.
Dorothy Schreyer says
LOVE seeing the bluebirds! Once in a while I have seen them in the are of Colorado where I am, but never that close. Glad you are ok, and we ALL know how live can get busy! I am amazed at how much you get do.
Lynn says
How wonderful to have bluebirds around. We don’t have enough trees here where we live on our farm but a few miles away there is a small river that has lots of trees on either side. Local people have put bluebird houses on the fence posts every so often enclosing the different pastures along the roads down there. They have them all numbered too so am thinking it might be just one person putting them up and maintaining them. Have heard there are more bluebirds around all during the year now too, probably because of the houses.
AmyM says
We have a bluebird house and a Brown-headed nuthatch house (just a bit smaller opening). DH went to check them last month to make sure they were clean… and came in saying there was a bird in one in a nest… and that the nest went all the way up to the opening. I knew this was not right.. so went and looked… and it was a pair of flying squirrels, one on top ( he ran out the hole) and one burried in the nest. Tried to catch that one in a box to relocate but he left too.
Box is all scrubbed and clean, but still empty… Love Mother Nature.
Lee says
These look the same/similar to the Western Bluebirds we have in California and I love seeing them. They nest in nearby trees and brush (specifically a Bottlebrush tree). The love to sit on the corners of our roof when they’re bug-hunting.
Vivien S says
Enjoyed your commentary on putting out bluebird boxes. We are getting ready to put out some ourselves here in southern NM. Did you have any problems with ants? We are wondering about putting some kind of ant guard on the pole.
JudyL says
So far, we have not had problems with ants but we may . . there are lots of ants around here.
Eileen says
We get a few bluebirds here too. They really are so beautiful. They sit on the outside ledge of our bedroom window and then hop up and bump into the window. They don’t hurt themselves. I make sure seed is out for them. Silly birds. Judy, you are great!!!